all around the anchorage. After an unidentified plane strafed her during the night of 19 September while was alongside, night operations were halted. By November she was en route to the Carolines, arriving Ulithi the 30th. Mauna Loa remained there until the beginning of the Okinawa campaign. On 13 March 1945 she departed Ulithi with TG 50.8 for 5 successful months on the "line," as it came to be termed, replenishing some 99 ships underway. The Japanese capitulation 14 August found her at San Pedro, Philippines. Mauna Loa departed San Pedro for the west coast 4 October, arriving Tiburon, Calif., the 21st. She moved up to Bremerton, Wash., 12 November. She then entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego 15 May 1946 and decommissioned 2 June 1947. 1955–1958 Mauna Loa recommissioned 31 January 1955 and departed San Diego 16 March for the east coast. After docking at Norfolk Naval Shipyard for alterations, she began refresher training out of Newport, R.I., 8 September; then served out of Earle, N.J., through the end of the year. On 5 January 1956 Mauna Loa departed Earle with Mine Division 81 for Europe, arriving Naples, Italy, the 24th. The ammunition ship operated with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean until 28 May when she steamed from Tangiers for home. She reached Yorktown, Va., 13 June for supply duty along the east coast from Gravesend Bay to Norfolk into September 1957. On 26 July 1957 the Mauna Loa threatened for more than an hour to emulate the famous Hawaiian volcano in more than just a name. With 3500 tons of explosives and a crew of 220 aboard she caught fire about 5 miles off Ambrose Lightship, the entrance to New York Harbor. The fire was contained to the ship's engine room and was extinguished by crew members. It was towed to Gravesend Bay for repairs the following two weeks. Basing estimates on the destruction caused by the explosion of the in 1944, the explosion of the Mauna Loa could have leveled Coney Island and broken all the windows in Manhattan up to 34th Street. On 27 September she again got underway from Earle for another tour in the Mediterranean until her return to Norfolk 17 November for 2d Fleet operations. From 1 February to 27 June 1958 Mauna Loa made a third visit to the Mediterranean, returning to New York 7 July. She shifted to