USS Pocono (AGC-16)

USS Pocono (AGC-16) was an Adirondack class amphibious force command ship named after a range of mountains in Eastern Pennsylvania. She was designed as an amphibious force flagship, a floating command post with advanced communications equipment and extensive combat information spaces to be used by the amphibious forces commander and landing force commander during large-scale operations.

Pocono, an amphibious force flagship, was laid down 30 November 1944 and launched 25 January 1945 by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, Wilmington, N. C., sponsored by Miss Mary V. Carmines of Messick, acquired by the Navy 15 February 1945; towed to Boston for fitting out; and commissioned 29 December 1945, Captain H. A. Sailor in command.

Service history

1946–1949

Pocono departed Boston on 18 March 1946 for Key West, Florida, en route to Guantanamo Bay for shakedown. The ship then proceeded to Washington, D.C., via Norfolk, and arrived in the nation’s capital on 7 May.

During the next few years, she operated off the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to Trinidad. Early in 1948, she was flagship of Admiral W. H. P. Blandy, Commander Atlantic Fleet.

Pocono decommissioned at Norfolk on 19 June 1949 and moved to Bayonne, N.J., where she entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.

1951–1959

Pocono was recommissioned on 18 August 1951 to serve as flagship for Commander, Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet. She operated in this capacity in the Caribbean and off the East Coast of...
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