1939–1941 Cimarron departed
Houston,
Texas, on 31 May 1939 bound for
Pearl Harbor,
Territory of Hawaii, arriving there on 21 July 1939. She transported
fuel oil between
United States West Coast ports and Pearl Harbor, making 13 such voyages until she got underway for the
United States East Coast on 19 August 1940. After repairs and alterations, she began oil runs along the
United States Gulf Coast and U.S. East Coast, principally between
Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, and
Norfolk,
Virginia, until August 1941, when she took part in
amphibious operations. From 5 to 16 September 1941 she put to sea with a
transport convoy bound for
Iceland, and voyaged north again from 12 October to 5 November 1941 to refuel ships at
Placentia Bay in the
Dominion of Newfoundland. On 15 November 1941, she joined a convoy at
Trinidad bound for
Singapore with reinforcements.
World War II The
United States entered
World War II with the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.
Cimarron was detached from the Trinidad-Singapore convoy on 9 December 1941 at
Cape Town,
South Africa. Returning to Trinidad on 31 December 1941, she operated between Brazil and Iceland until 4 March 1942, when she departed Norfolk bound for
San Francisco,
California, and service in the
Pacific campaign.
Cimarron reached San Francisco on 1 April 1942 and departed on 2 April with the U.S. Navy
task force that conducted the
Doolittle Raid — the first air raid on
Tokyo,
Japan — on 18 April 1942. With the oiler , she refueled the task force at sea before and after the raid and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 25 April 1942. She got back underway on 29 April 1942 to join the
Allied forces soon to join battle with the
Imperial Japanese Navy in the
Battle of the Coral Sea, but she did not arrive in the
Coral Sea area until after conclusion of the battle. She refueled
destroyers at
Nouméa on
Grande Terre in
New Caledonia, then returned to Pearl Harbor on 26 May 1942.
Cimarron got back underway from Pearl Harbor on 28 May 1942 to fuel the U.S. Navy forces which defeated the Japanese in the
Battle of Midway and returned on 12 June 1942. She departed again on 7 July 1942 to support the
invasion of
Guadalcanal in the southeastern
Solomon Islands. Using Nouméa as her principal base,
Cimarron occasionally reloaded at
Suva in
Fiji and
Efate in the
New Hebrides. After repairs at San Francisco in November 1942,
Cimarron departed for the forward area on 18 December 1942. She operated again from Nouméa in support of the final stages of the Guadalcanal campaign, then operated from Efate, carrying cargo to
Sydney,
Australia. She returned to fueling operations at
Dumbéa Bay in support of
the invasion of
New Georgia in the central Solomon Islands. She returned to San Francisco in July 1943, then made two trips from the U.S. West Coast to Pearl Harbor.
Cimarron departed Pearl Harbor on 29 September 1943 with a U.S. Navy
aircraft carrier task force which raided
Wake Island on 1943, and returned to Pearl Harbor on 16 October 1943. She got back underway on 14 November 1943 to fuel in support of the
Gilbert Islands campaign, returning yo Pearl Harbor on 1 December 1943. She then headed for
San Pedro, California, to reload from 12 December 1943 to 4 January 1944. Departing Pearl Harbor on 13 January 1944, she operated from
Majuro Atoll, supporting the
Marshall Islands campaign in February 1944 and
Operation Hailstone, the mid-February 1944 U.S. Navy attack on
Truk. On 6 June 1944 she moved to
Eniwetok Atoll, from which she supported U.S. forces in the
Mariana Islands campaign. On 26 August 1944 she moved to
Ulithi Atoll, from which she supported U.S. forces in the
Palau Islands campaign. After an overhaul in the United States from October through December 1944,
Cimarron arrived at Ulithi Atoll on 26 December 1944. From 27 December 1944 to 21 January 1945 she fueled the task force launching air attacks on Japanese forces in
French Indochina and the
Philippines as part of the
invasion of Lingayen Gulf on
Luzon. She put to sea again from 8 February to 22 March 1945 to support for U.S. Navy air raids on the
Japanese Home Islands and
the invasion of
Iwo Jima. From 26 March to 23 May 1945 she operated from Ulithi Atoll to fuel ships involved in the
Okinawa campaign, and from 3 June 1945 she shuttled between Ulithi Atoll and the areas from which U.S. Navy aircraft carrier task forces launched the final series of raids against the Japanese Home Islands. Hostilities with Japan ceased on 15 August 1945.
Cimarron received 10
battle stars for her World War II service.
1946–1950 Cimarron continued to operate from Ulithi Atoll in support of the
occupation of Japan until 10 September 1945, when she anchored in
Tokyo Bay. She operated in
East Asia until 4 February 1946, when she arrived at
Terminal Island Naval Shipyard on
Terminal Island, California, for overhaul. Between July 1946 and June 1950,
Cimarron ferried oil from the
Persian Gulf to naval bases in the
Mariana Islands and
Marshall Islands, occasionally continuing on to the US West Coast.
Korean War The
Korean War began when
North Korea invaded
South Korea on 25 June 1950.
Cimarron′s first tour of duty in the Korean War, from 6 July 1950 to 3 June 1951, found her fueling ships of the
Taiwan Patrol at Okinawa and amphibious warfare ships at
Kobe, Japan, and operating from
Sasebo, Japan, to fuel task forces in the waters off
Korea. Several times she entered the heavily
mined waters of the harbor at
Wonsan, Korea, to fuel the ships carrying out a lengthy
blockade and
bombardment of Wonsan. Returning to the U.S. West Coast,
Cimarron served as a
training tanker until her second Korean War tour, from 1 August to 10 December 1951. During this time she spent a month at Taiwan fueling the ships on duty in the
Formosa Strait, and made three voyages to Korean waters from Sasebo. During 1952, overhaul and training on the U.S. West Coast preceded her third Korean War deployment from 9 April to 5 January 1953, when her duty was similar to that of her second. During her fourth Korean War tour of duty, which began on 11 April 1953. The Korean War ended in an armistice on 27 July 1953.
Cimarron received seven battle stars for her Korean War service.
1953–1965 Cimarron remained in East Asian waters after the end of the Korean War and returned to the United States on 27 November 1953. She departed for East Asia again on 14 June 1954 and served as
flagship of the
United Nations support group for
Operation Passage to Freedom, the evacuation of
refugees from
communist North Vietnam. She returned to the United States on 8 February 1955. She subsequently made deployments to East Asia in support of the
United States Seventh Fleet in 1955, 1956–1957, 1957–1958, 1958–1959, 1959, and 1960. As of 1963, she had the longest continuous commissioned service of any active ship in the U.S. Navy.
Vietnam War Cimarron served during the
Vietnam War between 1965 and 1967. For her participation in the war, she received the
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal and the
Vietnam Service Medal with seven
service stars, for the Vietnam Advisory Campaign, Vietnam Defense, and Vietnamese Counteroffensive Phases I through III. At the end of her active service in 1968, she was the oldest U.S. Navy ship in continuous active service. ==Disposal==