USS Neosho (AO-23)

USS "Neosho" (AO-23) was a "Cimarron"-class fleet oiler serving with the United States Navy, the second ship to be named for the Neosho River in Kansas and Oklahoma.
After surviving the Attack on Pearl Harbor, "Neosho" operated in the South Pacific. During the Battle of the Coral Sea she was attacked and set alight, but managed to keep afloat until rendezvousing with an American destroyer on 11 May 1942, who sank her with gunfire after taking off the crew.
Construction and commissioning.
She was laid down under Maritime Commission contract by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Kearny, New Jersey, 22 June 1938; launched on 29 April 1939; sponsored by Mrs. Emory S. Land, wife of Rear Admiral Emory S. Land (Ret.), Chairman of the Maritime Commission; and commissioned on 7 August 1939, with Commander AV. E. A. Mullan in command.
Conversion at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard was completed on 7 July 1941, "Neosho" immediately began the vital task of ferrying aviation fuel from west coast ports to Pearl Harbor. On such a mission she arrived in Pearl Harbor on 6 December, discharged a full cargo to Naval Air Station Ford Island, and prepared for the return passage.
Service history.
Next morning, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor found "Neosho" alert to danger; her captain—Commander John S. Phillips—got her underway and maneuvered safely through the Japanese fire, concentrated on the battleships moored at Ford Island, to a safer area of the harbor. Her guns fired throughout the attack, splashing one enemy plane and driving off others. Three of her men were wounded by a strafing attacker.
For the next five months, "Neosho" sailed with the aircraft carriers or independently, since escort ships—now few and far between—could not always be spared to guard even so precious a ship and cargo. Late in April, as the Japanese threatened a southward move against Australia and New Zealand by attempting to advance their bases in the Southwest Pacific, "Neosho" joined Task Force 17 (TF 17). At all costs, the sea lanes to the dominions had to be kept open, and they had to be protected against attack and possible invasion.
As the American and Japanese fleets sought each other out in the opening maneuvers of the climactic Battle of the Coral Sea on 6 May 1942, "Neosho" refueled the carrier and the heavy cruiser , then retired from the carrier force with a lone escort, the destroyer .
The next day at 1000, Japanese search planes spotted the two ships and misidentified them as a carrier and her escort. 78 aircraft from "Shōkaku" and "Zuikaku" soon arrived and began searching in vain for the "carrier" force. Eventually, they gave up and returned to sink "Sims" and leave "Neosho"—victim of seven direct hits and a suicide dive by one of the bombers—ablaze aft and in danger of breaking in two. She had shot down at least three of the attackers. One of her crewmen, Oscar V. Peterson, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his efforts to save the ship in spite of his severe injuries suffered in the attack.
Sound seamanship and skilled damage control work kept "Neosho" afloat for the next four days. The stricken ship was first located by a RAAF aircraft, then an American PBY Catalina flying boat. At 13:00 on 11 May, the destroyer arrived, rescued the 123 survivors and sank by gunfire the ship they had kept afloat. With "Henley" came word that the American fleet had succeeded in turning the Japanese back.
Awards.
"Neosho" received two battle stars for her service.