History of USS
Utah (Part 2)
For the next 12 years
Utah served with distinction in the Atlantic Fleet. It sailed to
several South American ports to "show the flag" and to serve as
transport for diplomatic and goodwill missions. In 1924-1925 it earned
the Navy Battle Efficiency Award "E" for outstanding gunnery. Summers of
those years saw many a midshipman from the Naval Academy scramble around
its decks as the ship served with the Midshipman Practice Squadron.
USS Utah fires a salvo in gunnery
practice, 1920. U.S. Naval Historical Center photo NH63651.
The London Naval Conference
set limits for naval armaments, particularly the number of battleships
that a nation could have in its naval arsenal. Utah was one of
those condemned as a battleship and was designated to be removed from
service in order to comply with the London treaty. In 1934 the ship was
saved at the last moment from demolition when Navy officials decided to
remove the armament and convert the vessel to an experimental mobile
target ship at the Norfolk Navy yard.
On July 1, 1931, Utah
was redesignated a miscellaneous auxiliary ship. Conversion took nearly
a year, but as a result Utah became one of the most sophisticated
technical marvels of the period. Certainly the installation of the
radio-controlled steering and steaming apparatus bears witness to the
scientific advances of the 1930s. The mechanism allowed Utah to
be controlled from another ship or aircraft. The ship could steam at
varying rates of speed, alter course and lay smoke screens. It could
maneuver as a ship would during battle. All this was accomplished by
electric motors that could open and close throttle valves, position the
steering gear and regulate the supply of oil to the boilers in order to
generate smoke for laying down screens. This "robot" man-of-war was
steadied by a Sperry "metal mike" or gyro pilot in order to keep the
ship on course.
By April 1, 1932, Utah
was ready and placed in full commission by Commander Randall Jacobs. Six
days later it left Norfolk, Virginia to begin the shakedown cruise to
train the shipboard cruise engineers and to test the radio control
equipment under trial conditions. Although Utah could operate
without the touch of human hands, it did have to be monitored. The
maximum time for unassisted operations was four hours. In the past it
had taken 500 men, including officers and seamen, to operate the vessel.
Utah broke new ground in the field of remote control, and that
groundwork was used for space exploration and guided missiles more than
a generation later.
Utah left the waters
of the Atlantic in June 9, 1932, as it set sail for San Pedro,
California via the Panama Canal. Twenty-one days later it joined
Training Squadron One, U.S. Pacific Fleet.
USS Utah at anchor off Long Beach,
California in 1935. Following its conversion to a target vessel,
Utah's main battery guns had been removed. U.S. Naval Historical
Center photo G416384.
During this period Utah
realized its full potential as a target ship. In retrospect, a common
misunderstanding about Utah is its role and appearance. During
those years the ship's role was to duplicate conditions of battle
maneuvering that could test the skills of those who were being trained
to attack from air or sea. These training attacks on Utah were not without
hazards during either remote or manual operation. It has been estimated
that dive bombers scored hits 15 percent of the time and high-altitude
horizontal bombers about 5 percent. The practice bombs were inert but
struck the ship with such velocity and force that they could penetrate the
steel decks. In an effort to prevent this damage from occurring, huge
wooden timbers were placed on the ship's deck. Needless to say, when the
air attack took place, the crew exercised great caution. A majority of
the crew found protection within the ship's armor. The spotters sought
protection and visibility in the armored conning tower near the bridge.
Surface vessels such as
battleships, cruisers and destroyers found Utah useful in
long-range firing exercises. Although they never fired directly on
Utah, they did direct their aim at the target rafts that the ship
towed. This training allowed surface warships to maneuver in battle
conditions that honed surface-firing skills. Submarines found Utah
excellent training, because the ship responded like high-speed prey.
On April 30, 1935, Utah
joined other elements of the Pacific Fleet for a cruise to the Hawaiian
Islands. On the voyage to Pearl Harbor, the ship was readied for a new
training task -- amphibious operations at Hilo Bay on the island of
Hawaii, where it debarked 223 officers and men from the fleet's Marine
contingent, along with full equipment and armament.
Utah was changed over
in August 1935 to an antiaircraft training ship for the Pacific Fleet, a
status ultimately more important than the category of mobile target
ship. Fleet officials established a machine-gunners' school that month,
and trainees came aboard Utah from several cruisers and the
aircraft carrier Ranger. The skill of Ranger's gunners in
particular was hailed by the Commander Aircraft Pacific Fleet Battle Force.
Thus Utah embarked on a new phase of training that would occupy
the remaining years of the ship's life until its demise in December
1941.
After the training was
completed, Utah returned to the West Coast and eventually went back to
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Utah entered the docks on May 31, 1941. For
nearly three months the ship underwent massive changes to the shipboard
training armament. Before leaving Puget Sound, Utah war colors
were applied in the form of Measure 1 paint scheme. Dark sea gray was
painted on the hull and lower super structure and light haze gray to the
upper main tops. It set sail for the last time for Hawaii on September
14, 1941. For six weeks it held an advanced antiaircraft firing practice
in Hawaiian waters. For the weekend of December 6-7, Utah returned to
Pearl Harbor and moored at berth F-11 on the west side of Ford Island.
USS Utah undergoing its final
refit at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, August 18, 1941.
Utah's dark-gray "war paint" (officially known as Measure
1
camouflage)
is being applied to its bow. U.S. Naval Historical Center photo NH71234
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