USS Buckeye (AN-13)

After fitting out at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Buckeye began duty in the 13th Naval District. She tended nets there until the fall of 1942. At that time, the ship was transferred to the Alaska Sector based at Dutch Harbor.

While stationed there, she was placed in full commission on 26 December 1942, Lt. Comdr. Elias Johnson, USNR, in command. She continued to tend nets and buoys in the Aleutian Islands, first at Dutch Harbor and, after May 1943, at recently captured Attu. On 1 January 1944, Buckeye was re-designated AN 13. During the summer of 1944, the net layer received orders to Seattle, Washington, for an overhaul that she completed between 24 July and 11 September.

Following a round-trip voyage from the U.S. West Coast to Hawaii and back, Buckeye was stationed at the Naval Net Depot at Tiburon, California, near San Francisco, California, as ready duty ship and standby vessel for emergency repairs. That duty lasted until 27 January 1945 when she was transferred to Service Squadron (ServRon) 6 of the U.S. 7th Fleet.

During February and March, the net layer stopped at Pearl Harbor, Funafuti in the Ellice Islands, Manus in the Admiralty Islands, and Hollandia on New Guinea before arriving in the Philippines in April. Initially, she served in Leyte Gulf but, later that summer moved to Luzon where she operated in Manila Bay and Subic Bay.