USS Neches (AO-5)

USS Neches (AO–5) was laid down on 8 June 1919 by the Boston Navy Yard in Boston, Massachusetts; launched on 2 June 1920, sponsored by Miss Helen Griffin, daughter of Rear Admiral Robert Griffin; and commissioned on 25 October 1920.

Originally classified as Fuel Ship No. 17 through 1920, Neches was assigned to Boston until 3 March 1922. During service with the Atlantic Fleet, she performed fleet fuel duties along the East Coast, participated in tactical exercises, carried mail, and towed targets. She also made several trips to Port Arthur, Texas, for fuel oil and gasoline.

She fueled at Fall River, Massachusetts, in early March 1922 and then steamed for Norfolk, Virginia. She next got underway for her new home yard at Mare Island, California, and thence to San Diego, California, her new homeport, whence she operated as a fleet oiler. She underwent overhaul commencing on 1 May 1926 at Mare Island, during which a new hydraulic gasoline stowage system was installed. During the ensuing 15 years, Neches was a busy ship. She participated in and helped develop fleet tactics, fueled the fleet, and supplied oil and gasoline to bases in the Panama Canal Zone, the Caribbean, and Hawaii.

The oiler was underway from San Diego to Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked that base. She arrived on 10 December 1941, rapidly off-loaded and hurriedly returned to San Pedro in order to take on more cargo for Pearl Harbor. Neches was returning to Pearl Harbor with the damage control hulk DCH 1 (IX-44), formerly the destroyer USS Walker (DD-163), in tow. On 28 December 1941, DCH 1 was cast adrift and scuttled by gunfire from Neches at 26°35′N 143°49′W.

Neches steamed from Pearl Harbor late in the afternoon of 22 January 1942, headed for the western Pacific as the re-fueling ship for the task force containing the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2). Shortly after midnight, the watch discerned a possible submarine at a range of about 1000 yd and immediately took evasive action. At 03:10 there was a heavy thud amidships, probably a dud torpedo.

At 03:19 a torpedo from JAPANESE SUBMARINE I-72 struck the oiler on the starboard side abaft the engine room. The explosion caused extensive flooding in the engine room spaces, although water did not reach the fire room. At 03:28 the submarine was sighted to port just before another torpedo struck the port side. Both 5 in guns took the submarine under fire and continued firing until 03:35, when the list to starboard made it impossible to depress the guns sufficiently.

Neches slowly settled forward and the list to starboard increased steadily. She sank at 04:37, with a loss of fifty-seven men, at 21.01667°N, -160.1°W, approximately 120 nmi west of Pearl Harbor. Three injured men were picked up by a seaplane after sunrise. A destroyer arrived by noon to pick up the rest of the men in the life boats. A total of 126 survivors were rescued, a few men were on a lifeboat for several days before rescue, including the captain in his pajamas.

The commanding officer of the oiler, Commander William Bartlett Fletcher, Jr., was the son of Rear Admiral William Bartlett Fletcher, Sr. Fletcher, Junior would go on to make rear admiral after the sinking.

'''Interview with survivor, Robert "Bob" D. White (Electrician's Mate 2nd Class). March 3, 2005. Allen, Texas.'''"Robert D. White, a survivor from the Neches, recalled how incredible it was that he, or any of them survived. 'We were supposed to meet a destroyer that was in that taskforce the next morning and they was gonna wait for us at a certain point. We was to meet them, and then they'd escort us on to that taskforce and they'd protect us. Well, that Japanese submarine got to us before we got to that destroyer. That Japanese submarine attacked us around three or four o'clock in the morning before daybreak. And it just happened that less than a week before, the Captain of the Tanker got the bright idea to divide his crew. he had all the engineers in one crew's quarters, and all the seamen and deck force in another crews' quarters. So, he had the bright idea to split 'em up and have them half and half in each quarters. Well in that move, I moved from the abaft crews' quarters to the foreword crew's quarters. Well, it just so happened that all of the fifty-seven men that was lost was all in that abaft crew's quarters in the engine room. Well anyways, early that morning there was a 'thud' you know like we'd just run into something, and the officer on deck didn't realize, you know, what had happened, but he was conscious that we had hit something or something had hit us. And it was a torpedo that was fired by that Japanese Submarine that failed to explode on contact, it just hit us, and that was all. A few minutes later, they hit us with a second torpedo that did explode...I made it on deck and we started to firing before they hit us with the third (last) torpedo, but like I say it was before daybreak so we was just firing into the air as the Neches started to sinking, but they didn't stay 'round long. During all that we tied the rafts together and threw them overboard and let our lifeboats off the edge and hoped for the best, [we] didn't know whether we would catch or find the boats in the dark. And as we were leaving the ship, I was one of the last ones to leave, and when I left all I had to do was to just step off into the water, I didn't have to jump or nothing, just step off and start swimming.' Interviewer, 'What happened then? was the water cold?' Mr. White, 'No, it was out in the south pacific and it was rather warm, you know, comfortable. And, in the back of our minds, we didn't know whether the ship was going to sink fast enough you know to create a whirlpool and suck somebody under. Or whether there was going to be oil leaking and it would catch on fire. We just imagined a whole lot of things, but none of it happened! And the guys swam to those donut rafts, and everybody tried to stay together as much as possible, and when the ship sunk, why, there were our lifeboats just floating! Well, the next morning came, and that destroyer finally found us and that Japanese submarine never did...'.Interview with survivor of the USS Neches Robert D White Robert 'Bob' Dalton White, June 16, 1923 - March 29, 2011."