Kalamazoo I (AOG-30)
A river in Michigan.
____
Kalamazoo, projected as a double turreted monitor, was laid down in 1863 at New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., but work on the monitor was suspended on 27 November 1865 and never resumed. The unfinished ship was renamed Colossus on 15 June 1869; without seeing any service she was broken up in 1884.
I
(AOG-30: displacement 845; length 220'6"; beam37'0"; draft 13'11"; speed 10.0 knots; complement 62; armament 1 3-inch, 2 40 millimeter, 3 20 millimeter; class Mettawee; type T1-M-A2)
The first Kalamazoo (AOG-30) was laid down on 7 July 1944 at Bayopnne, N.J., by the East Coast Shipyards, Inc., under a Maritime Commission contract (M. C. Hull 1527); launched on 30 August 1944; sponsored by Miss Harriett Savage; acquired by the Navy on 7 October; and commissioned on 14 October 1944 at the New York Navy Yard, Lt. Walter Pierson, Jr., USCGR, in command.
Following her shakedown in the Caribbean, Kalamazoo cleared Norfolk, Va., on 7 December 1944 for Aruba, Dutch West Indies, to load fuel oil. She departed Aruba on 21 December for duty in the Southwest Pacific. After fueling operations in the Solomons, Admiralties, and Humboldt Bay, New Guinea, she reached Leyte Gulf, P.I., on 4 March 1945 as a unit of the Service Force, Seventh Fleet. She operated as a gasoline tanker out of San Pedro Bay until 15 April when she sailed for fueling operations off the southern Philippines. Arriving Police Harbor, Mindanao, 20 April, she served for more than seven months in the Celebes Sea, transporting cargo and fuel from Borneo and Morotai to ports in Mindanao.
Departing Zamboanga, Mindanao, on 1 December 1945, Kalamazoo steamed via Manila to Subic Bay, Luzon, where she remained until sailing for the United States on 11 January 1946. She reached San Francisco, Calif., on 12 March and cleared port on the 22nd for passage to the Gulf Coast. On 1 April, while en route to the Panama Canal Zone , however,her main engine failed. The oiler Kennabago (AO-81) assisted her to Balboa where she arrived on 10 April. Under tow from the rescue tug ATR-85, she departed Cristobol, C.Z., 26 April for Mobile, Ala., where she arrived 3 May.
Kalamazoo was decommissioned on 18 May 1946 and subsequently was turned over to the Maritime Commission for disposal. She was transferred to the Government of Colombia on 26 November 1947 and was renamed Bals de Lezo (BT-62).
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
9 July 2024
