SS Red Oak Victory
Red Oak, Iowa, population six thousand, lost more young men per capita in the early years of World War II than almost any county in the state. Montgomery County ranked third among Iowa counties for wartime casualties. When the Permanente Metals Corporation launched a Victory ship from its Richmond Number 1 Yard on November 9, 1944, they named her after that small, grieving town. The SS Red Oak Victory would go on to serve in three wars, cross the Pacific dozens of times, and eventually come home to the very shipyard where she was built.
Ammunition Runner
The Red Oak Victory is 455 feet long and was armed with a five-inch gun, a three-inch gun, and eight 20mm guns -- more firepower than a typical cargo vessel, because her primary cargo was ammunition. Acquired by the U.S. Navy on December 5, 1944, and commissioned the same day as USS Red Oak Victory (AK-235), she departed San Francisco for Pearl Harbor in January 1945 loaded with the munitions needed to sustain the Pacific campaign. From Hawaii, she carried ordnance to the Marshall and Caroline Islands, then to Ulithi, and finally operated out of the Philippines under Commander Service Squadron Ten, issuing cargo and ammunition to fleet ships through the war's end in August 1945. During her entire hazardous Pacific tour, handling countless tons of explosives, she sustained not a single casualty.
Three Wars, Three Decades
Decommissioned in 1946, the Red Oak Victory was hardly finished. The Luckenbach Steamship Company operated her from 1947 through the 1950s, sending her to Japan, Korea, Cuba, Pakistan, India, and Singapore. From 1966 to 1968, American Mail Lines ran her for the Military Sea Transport Service, making a dozen voyages to Vietnam, Japan, and the Philippines carrying military supplies from West Coast ports. She was one of relatively few Victory ships transferred from the Merchant Marine to the Navy, and one of fewer still to see active duty across three separate conflicts. After Vietnam, she was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay, where she sat from 1968 to 1998, slowly rusting toward oblivion.
Saved from the Scrapyard
By 1993, the Red Oak Victory was destined for scrapping. But the Richmond Museum Association noticed the ship and saw something worth preserving -- not just a vessel, but a connection to the shipyards that had transformed Richmond during the war. In 1996, Congress authorized her transfer to the Museum Association. On September 20, 1998, she was towed to Richmond Shipyard 3, near the site of Shipyard 1 where she had been built 54 years earlier. Today she sits alongside the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park, a fitting neighbor for a ship that embodies the arsenal of democracy. She is one of only a few Victory ships still afloat anywhere in the world, a 455-foot reminder of the town whose losses gave her a name.
From the Air
Located at 37.905N, 122.364W in Richmond, California, at the former Richmond Shipyards along the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. The ship is visible near the Rosie the Riveter National Park. Nearest airports: KOAK (8nm south), KSFO (18nm south). Best viewed at 1,500-3,000 ft AGL.