USS Picket (ACM-8)

USS "Picket" (ACM–8) was a of the United States Navy during World War II.
"Picket" was completed 15 April 1942 by Marietta Manufacturing Co., Point Pleasant, West Virginia, as the U.S. Army mine planter USAMP-1 "General Henry Knox" as the first of the WW II period planters built for the U.S. Army Mine Planter Service. USAMP "Knox" was transferred to the U.S. Navy 2 January 1945; completed conversion to an Auxiliary Minelayer, ACM-8, at Charleston Navy Yard 5 March 1945; and commissioned 6 March 1945, Lt. Robert F. Harwood in command.
Service history.
Pacific Theatre operations.
"Picket" departed Charleston, South Carolina on 11 March 1945, and arrived Little Creek, Virginia, 13 March. Following shakedown, she reported for duty 3 April to Commander, Service Force, Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia. Loaded with minesweeping equipment, she departed Norfolk 26 April, transited the Panama Canal 7 May, and arrived San Diego, 20 May. Following training, "Picket" departed San Diego 9 June, and proceeded via Pearl Harbor, Eniwetok, Guam, and Saipan to Okinawa, arriving 28 July to serve as minesweeper tender.
"Picket" departed Okinawa on 16 August, and, following rendezvous with Task Force 31 on the 21st, she entered Tokyo Bay on the 28th. With minesweepers, she departed Tokyo Bay on 12 September, and arrived at Wakayama, Japan, on the 14th.
Sailing from Kii Suido on 20 September, she entered the Inland Sea on the 22nd. Through 31 October she operated with minesweepers to clear the approaches to Hiro, Kure, Gunchū, and Matsuyama for U.S. Army landings.
Navy Decommissioning.
Following postwar occupation duties, "Picket" returned to the United States. She decommissioned 24 June 1946, and was transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard that date. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register 19 July 1946.
U.S. Coast Guard.
The ex-"Picket" (ACM 8) ex-"General Henry Knox" was commissioned 20 September 1947 as USCGC "Willow" (WAGL/WLB-332). The ship was converted to a buoy tender and assigned to San Juan, Puerto Rico from 23 July 1947 until transfer to San Francisco, California during June 1949. "Willow's" area of responsibility extended from San Luis Obispo Bay to the Golden Gate, northern San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay and Suisun and shared logistics support of the Farallon Island Light Station and the San Francisco Lightship with USCGC "Magnolia" (WAGL/WLB-328). On 10 October 1969 Willow was decommissioned and stored at the Coast Guard Training Support Center in Alameda, California. As a buoy tender, the largest in the Coast Guard at time of conversion, duties were tending navigational aids and conducting search and rescue and law enforcement as needed.