USS Hazard (AM-240) (Omaha, Nebraska)

 museum ship  Add category

Laid down in February 1944 as an Admirable Class Minesweeper, the USS Hazard Commissioned into US Navy service on October 31st, 1944 and immediately sailed for war in the Pacific.

After serving in the vital but unsung role of a convoy escort during her first months of service, the Hazard sailed for the Philippines where she joined with the US Fleet preparing for the Invasion of Okinawa. Arriving onstation in March 1945, the Hazard began the very dangerous work of locating and destroying hidden enemy mines, anti-submarine patrols and as an escort ship, all while under near-constant threat of kamikaze attacks until the end of offensive operations on Okinawa in July.

For the rest of the War the Hazard swept the sea lanes of the East China Sea and was on station when news came of the Japanese surrender. Although the war was over, Hazard's work was not and for the next three months she worked with other Minesweepers to clear the East China Sea lanes, Yellow Sea lanes, the harbor of Jinsen, Korea and finally Sasebo harbor in Japan. With her work complete and her crew eager to sail for home, the USS Hazard ended her part in the Second World War by embarking Veterans and heading for the US on November 20th, 1945.

Arriving in San Diego in December 1945, the Hazard's crew then sailed her for Galveston where she decommissioned from active service on July 27th, 1946 with three Battle Stars earned for her World War II service. She remained in the Reserve Fleet at Orange, TX until 1971 when she was stricken from the Naval Register and went up for sale. A group of businessmen from Omaha purchased the Hazard and brought her up to Omaha where she was installed as a museum ship and memorial to the Second World War.

Presently a National Historic Landmark, the USS Hazard is the only remaining ship of her class of 123 ships in the world, after her sistership USS Inaugural (AM-242) was sunk by flooding on the Mississippi River in 1993.

www.navsource.org/archives/11/02240.htm