Minesweeping was among the most dangerous assignments in the Pacific war. The ships were small -- Admirable-class minesweepers like Salute displaced barely a thousand tons -- and the work required them to go exactly where nobody else wanted to be: into uncleared waters ahead of the fleet, dragging sweep gear through seas that might detonate at any moment. Salute was laid down on 11 November 1942 at the Winslow Marine Railway and Shipbuilding Company in Seattle, launched on 6 February 1943, and sponsored by Miss Patricia Lindgren. She was commissioned on 4 December 1943, and after shakedown sailed from San Francisco on 21 March 1944 bound for Hawaii. Between April and September, she ran convoy escort duty across the vast distances of the central Pacific -- Pearl Harbor to Majuro, Kwajalein to Eniwetok, Guam to Saipan -- before reporting to the 7th Fleet at Manus Island in October 1944, just in time for the invasion of the Philippines.

Salute joined Mine Division 34 off the Leyte beaches on 20 October 1944 for a four-day sweep of the main transport channel. It was the beginning of a campaign that would take her to nearly every major landing in the Philippine liberation. After the sweeps, she anchored with the transports to provide antiaircraft support -- minesweepers doubled as gunships when the kamikazes came, and the kamikazes came often. Between 27 and 31 October, Salute helped search for survivors from the Battle off Samar, where a small force of escort carriers, destroyers, and destroyer escorts had improbably turned back a far more powerful Japanese fleet. She swept ahead of the landings at Ormoc Bay in December, Mindoro that same month, Lingayen Gulf in January 1945, and Zambales and Subic Bay at month's end. Few mines were encountered in the Philippines -- the greater threat was from the air. Kamikaze resistance was intense, and the minesweepers saw constant antiaircraft action, their small guns barking at aircraft diving from above.

The most harrowing operation came in February 1945. Salute and her division began pre-invasion sweeps in Manila Bay on the 13th, clearing the way for landings at Mariveles and the fortress island of Corregidor. On 14 February, the minesweepers pressed to within 5,000 yards of Corregidor's shore -- close enough to see the Japanese gun emplacements, close enough for those guns to find their range. The minesweepers were repeatedly straddled by fire, geysers of water erupting around their thin-skinned hulls, before supporting ships finally silenced the island's batteries. Salute continued sweeping through 18 February, and Mine Division 34 earned a Navy Unit Commendation for the operation. Over the next two and a half months, Salute carried out sweeps supporting ground operations across the Philippines, including a pre-assault clearance for landings at Legaspi, Luzon, on 1 April, and an eight-day sweep in the Sulu Sea off Palawan beginning 22 April. On 9 May, she arrived at Morotai to prepare for what would be her final campaign.

On 7 June 1945, Mine Division 34 began the pre-invasion sweep for the landings in Brunei Bay, Borneo. The war was grinding toward its conclusion, but the mines seeded in these waters did not care about timetables. On 8 June, Salute struck one. The explosion buckled the ship amidships, and both bow and stern began to sink simultaneously. Two landing craft raced to her side and attempted to salvage the stricken minesweeper, but they could not control the flooding. Salute went down. Six sailors died in the explosion or its immediate aftermath; three more were reported missing and never found. Nine men, out of a crew that had survived everything the Pacific war had thrown at them. Salute was struck from the Navy list on 11 July 1945. She now rests in 30 meters of water, broken in two pieces, one section lying across the other like a folded letter.

Today, Salute is a popular and challenging dive site in Brunei Bay. Munitions litter the wreck and the surrounding seabed -- a reminder that this is not merely a recreational attraction but a war grave. The Malaysian navy has removed her unexploded depth charges, reducing but not eliminating the hazard. Divers who descend to the wreck swim through compartments where men once slept, worked, and died, past coral-encrusted guns that once fired at kamikazes. In November 2016, a memorial plaque was presented to the U.S. Embassy in Brunei, bearing a folded American flag, a photograph of Salute in service, and the names of the nine sailors who perished. Days later, the Naval History and Heritage Command announced it had reclaimed four artifacts -- an inkwell, a gas mask, and two plates -- from divers who had removed them from the wreck. The items were to be conserved, small fragments of a ship that spent her short life clearing the way for others and, in the end, could not clear the way for herself.