USS Shasta (AE-6), an ammunition ship, was laid down under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 125) on 12 August 1940 by the Tampa Shipbuilding Company, Tampa, Fla., initially as a C2 type cargo ship. She was acquired by the Navy on 16 April 1941 and launched on 9 July 1941, sponsored by Mrs. Spessard L. Holland. She was commissioned on 20 January 1942. She was named after Mount Shasta, a volcano in the Cascade Range in northern California, USA. Wartime voyages On 19 November 1942, Shasta departed Alameda, Calif., for Noumea, New Caledonia, on the first of her ten wartime transpacific voyages. At the western end of each voyage, she moved from island to island replenishing the ammunition supplies of the Battle Fleet. With one exception, a deployment to Adak, Alaska, in support of the Attu and Kiska operations, Shasta's activities centered around the campaigns in the western Pacific. Her cargo supported the campaigns against the Gilberts, the Marianas, the Palaus, and the Philippines. Career highlights The highlights of Shasta's wartime career came in 1945. In February, she participated in the first successful underway replenishment of ammunition. Later, while re-supplying the warships supporting the assault on Iwo Jima, she unloaded ammunition while under attack by Japanese shore batteries. Her most harrowing experience occurred on 5 June when she was battered by the force fourteen winds of a typhoon off the southeastern coast of Okinawa. Though her cargo had shifted and much of it had been damaged, ( 27 depth charges rolled loose on deck and 250 rounds of 16-inch projectiles broke loose and fell one deck onto 1,000-pound bombs )Shasta still managed a successful rearming rendezvous before sailing for Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. This same typhoon sank three destroyers and damaged nine others. USS Shasta survived an attack by kamikaze planes at Ulithi and drifting mines at Okinawa. Leyte Gulf Her cargo operations complete, Shasta departed Leyte Gulf and joined TG 30.8 on 17 July 1945. After a short replenishment cruise, she returned to Leyte Gulf for more cargo. The end of the war found Shasta taking on cargo from Victory ships. She remained at Leyte Gulf until 25 October, at which time she sailed for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard via Eniwetok Atoll. Following inactivation overhaul, she was decommissioned at San Diego on 10 August 1946. Recommissioned After almost six years of inactivity in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Shasta