USS Muskogee, PF-49
A city in Oklahoma.
Builder: Consolidated Steel Corp., Ltd., Wilmington, CA
Length: 303' 11"
Beam: 37' 6"
Draft: 12' 8" fl
Displacement: 2,230 tons
Propulsion: 2-shaft VTE, 3 boilers
Range: 9,500 nm at 12 knots
Top speed: 20 knots
Complement: 190
Armament: 3 x 3"/50; 4 x 40mm (2x2); 9 x 20mm; 1 x Hedgehog, 8 x depth charge projectors; 2 x depth charge racks. For those frigates fitted out for weather patrol duty, the after 3-inch gun was removed and a weather balloon hanger was added aft.
History:
Muskogee (PF--49) was laid down 18 September 1943 by Consolidated Steel Corp., Ltd., Wilmington, CA. She was launched 18 October 1943 and was sponsored by Mrs. S. B. Hudson, wife of the mayor of Muskogee. Muskogee was commissioned 16 March 1944 under the command of CDR Rufus E. Mroczkowski, USCG.
After training and exercises off the California coast, Muskogee departed San Pedro, Calif., 18 June 1944 for Noumea, where she arrived 18 July for patrol and escort duty from Noumea and, after its capture, Humboldt Bay, New Guinea. Antisubmarine patrol and screening for ships operating around New Guinea were her primary duties into October. On 18 October she got underway screening the second reinforcement group bound for newly invaded Leyte, arriving in San Pedro Bay 24 October to screen transports and supply ships under numerous enemy air attacks while waiting for a group of empty LSTs to form up for the return passage. As her convoy retired on the 26th, it was again attacked, and Muskogee joined in downing several enemy aircraft. A second escort voyage to Leyte in early November was less eventful.
Concluding her New Guinea patrols, Muskogee arrived in Pearl Harbor 15 December, then reported at Dutch Harbor 12 January 1945 for similar duty in the Aleutians. On 6 July she cleared Adak for repairs at Seattle, returning to Alaska to decommission at Cold Bay 26 August 1945.
Leased to the Soviet government 27 August 1945, she was commissioned into the Soviet Navy as EK-19. The Soviets returned her to U.S. custody 1 November 1949 in Japan. She was then loaned to Korea 23 October 1950 and commissioned as Dumon (PF--61).
Muskogee received one battle star for World War II service.
Sources:
The Coast Guard At War, Transports and Escorts, Vol. V, No. 1.
Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922-1946. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1992, pp. 148-149.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. IV, p. 462.
Richard A. Russell. Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan. [The U.S. Navy in the Modern World Series, No. 4.] Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center/U.S. Government Printing Office, 1997, pp. 39-40.