USS Ogden (PF-39)

The first Ogden (PF-39) was laid down by Consolidated Steel Corp., Los Angeles, Calif., 21 May 1943; launched 23 June 1943; sponsored by Miss Margaret S. Shelton; and commissioned at San Diego 20 December 1943, Lt. K. C. Tharp, USNR, in command.

After shakedown out of San Diego, Ogden sailed 9 March 1944 escorting a convoy via Samoa to Milne Bay, New Guinea, which she reached 2 April 1944. Through July she took part in the operations leap-frogging westward in New Guinea, escorting landing ships and merchant vessels, conducting antisubmarine patrols, and serving as harbor entrance control ship at Humboldt Bay.

Following repairs and training at Brisbane, Australia, in August and September, the patrol escort supported the buildup of men and shipping for the forthcoming return to the Philippines, twice escorting convoys from Manus in the Admiralties to New Guinea staging bases. She herself arrived at Leyte 2 November, bringing up a convoy which included a Navy tanker, an Australian merchantman, and ten tugs pulling a variety of tows. When enemy planes attacked her convoy that night, one bomb missed her by only 50 yards.

She returned to New Guinea twice to bring reinforcement convoys to Leyte and, on 12 November, splashed three Japanese suicide planes attacking merchant shipping off Leyte. Her gunners scored again off New Guinea 29 November, assisting in the destruction of two of the torpedo planes which attacked her Leyte-bound convoy.

Ogden left Humboldt Bay 14 December, bound for Manus, Bora Bora, the Panama Canal, Charleston, and Boston, where she arrived 24 January 1945. After repairs and training in Casco Bay, Me., Ogden was westward bound once more, via the Panama Canal to Seattle, where she completed repairs. On 27 June Ogden arrived in Cold Bay, Alaska, where she trained Russian sailors. She decommissioned 12 July 1945 and was transferred to Russia under lend-lease. Returned to the United States at Yokosuka, Japan, 15 October 1949, she was transferred to Japan 14 January 1953, and serves as Kusu (PF-281).

From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Ogden I (PF-39)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.