1945: Named for an Alaskan River, this U.S. Navy Tanker was Launched in the Waning Days of World War II

August 28, 1945

Just a few days before World War II ended with the formal surrender of Japan to the Allies, the U.S. Navy tanker USS Chukawan (AO-100) was launched at the Bethlehem Steel Company’s shipyard in Sparrows Point (an industrial area in the vicinity of Baltimore).

As part of those festivities, this vessel — named after the Chukawan River in Alaska — was christened by Meredith McCrea (1926-2003) of Washington, D.C. She was a daughter of John L. McCrea (1891-1990), a rear admiral who was serving at the time as central division director of naval operations. Earlier in the war, he had been naval aide to President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945). Rear Admiral McCrea, along with his wife (and Meredith’s mother) Estelle Murphy McCrea (1902-1961), likewise attended the launch ceremonies for Chukawan.

This tanker was commissioned into the Navy on January 22 of the following year. While Chukawan had not been completed in time to take part in World War II, she more than made up for it over the ensuing decades. Chukawan frequently traveled far and wide from her home port at Norfolk, Virginia, to perform duties that involved transporting oil overseas and refueling other Navy ships as needed.

Some of Chukawan’s more pivotal assignments in this regard entailed accompanying and assisting the U.S. Sixth Fleet of the Navy during several of its cruises in the Mediterranean region. This tanker’s deployments with the Sixth Fleet specifically occurred in 1947, 1950, 1951-52, 1954, 1955-56, 1957, 1958, and 1960. The attached photo of Chukawan in the Mediterranean Sea was taken in 1958.

One of the crewmen who served on board Chukawan during the early 1950s was Virginia native Vincent Eugene Craddock (1935-1971). After his medical discharge from the Navy, he changed his name to Gene Vincent and achieved fame as a rock and roll singer, songwriter, and guitarist who helped pioneer the rockabilly genre of music. Early on in Vincent’s music career, he formed a Norfolk-based rockabilly band called Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps. (“Blue caps” was a reference to enlisted sailors in the Navy.)

Chukawan officially remained in military service until being decommissioned in Norfolk on June 13, 1972. She was struck from the Naval Register the following month. On March 1, 1973, Chukawan was sold for scrapping by the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency’s Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (now known as DLA Disposition Services).

Photo Credit: Public Domain

For more information on USS Chukawan (AO-100), please check out https://www.navsource.org/archives/09/19/19100.htm