US Navy

Enjoying a beer

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U.S. Navy sailors relax and drink beer under the palms on Mogmog island. Part of the Ulithi atoll in the Pacific, on 23 September 1944, a regiment of the U.S. Army’s 81st Infantry Division landed on the atoll unopposed, followed a few days later by a battalion of United States Naval Construction Forces (nicknamed ”Seabees”, from “CBs” which in turn comes from the term Construction Battalions). The survey ship USS Sumner (AGS-5) examined the lagoon and reported it capable of holding 700 vessels, a capacity greater than either Mauro in the Marshall Islands or Pearl Harbor. It became the undisclosed Pacific base for major operations late in the war, including Leyte Gulf and the invasion of Okinawa. After Leyte Gulf was secured, the U.S. Pacific Fleet moved its forward staging area to Leyte, and Ulithi was all but abandoned. In the end, few U.S. civilians ever heard of Ulithi. By the time Naval security cleared release of the name, there were no longer reasons to print stories about it. The war had moved on, but for seven months in late 1944 and early 1945, the large lagoon of the Ulithi atoll was the largest and most active anchorage in the world. Mogmog island, Ulithi atoll, Yap, Caroline Islands (now, Federated States of Micronesia). March 1945. taken from fb/R.Kennedy/WW2 Military info & photos