in the South China Sea to the southwest of Formosa. She sighted no enemy shipping during her patrol. On 28 May 1945, she conducted a reconnaissance and bombardment of Pratas Island. She sent a landing party of 12 men ashore, and they found the island to be uninhabited, discovering that the Japanese naval garrison had recently been evacuated. In a ceremony on 29 May 1945, Bluegill′s crew raised the United States flag on the island and proclaimed it to be "Bluegill Island." They then destroyed a Japanese ammunition and fuel dump on the island. The otherwise uneventful patrol ended at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 21 June 1945. End of war Later in June 1945, Bluegill headed for San Francisco, California, where she arrived on 2 July 1945 and soon began an overhaul at the Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard. While she was undergoing overhaul, World War II ended with the cessation of hostilities with Japan on 15 August 1945 (14 August on the other side of the International Date Line in San Francisco). Post-World War II 1945–1946 Upon completion of her overhaul, Buegill served in the United States Pacific Fleet until 1 March 1946, when she was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Mare Island Naval Shipyard on Mare Island in Vallejo, California. 1951–1953 Bluegill remained in reserve at Mare Island until the spring of 1951. As part of the fleet build-up that occurred following the outbreak of the [Korean War]] on 25 June 1950, she was recommissioned on 3 May 1951 and reported to the U.S. Pacific Fleet for service as a training submarine, based at San Diego, California. On 7 July 1952, she was decommissioned at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, placed in reserve, and redesignated a "hunter-killer submarine" — U.S. Navy terminology at the time for a specialized antisubmarine warfare submarine — with the hull classification symbol SSK-242. After conversion at Hunters Point for her new role, she was recommissioned at San Francisco on 2 May 1953. 1953–1969 Bluegill resumed duty based at San Diego until 2 November 1953, when she deployed to the western Pacific. During her deployment, she trained with units of the United States Seventh Fleet, saw service off the Koean Peninsula, and visited various Far Eastern ports before returning to San Diego on 15 May 1954. There, she resumed operations along the United States West Coast and continued such duty until Decebmber