USS Pioneer (AM-105) was an acquired by the United States Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing. Pioneer was a U.S. Navy oceangoing minesweeper, named after the word "pioneer," which is defined as a person or group that originates or helps open up a new line of thought or activity or a new method or technical development. Pioneer was laid down 30 October 1941 by Pennsylvania Shipyards, Inc., Beaumont, Texas; launched 26 July 1942; sponsored by Mrs. H. R. Jessup; and commissioned 27 February 1943. Convoy assignment Pioneer trained her crew and experimented with newly developed gear in the Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay, and the Potomac River before joining a Mediterranean-bound convoy at New York City on 14 May 1943, for the first of four escort voyages from New York or Norfolk, Virginia, to North African ports. In November she took up patrol and escort duty within the Mediterranean. On 26 November 1943, while bound east from Oran, Pioneer's convoy was attacked by German bombers. They hit a British troopship (with over 2,000 US servicemen aboard) and set her afire; Pioneer stood by, continuing to fire on the attacking aircraft while conducting the rescue of 606 soldiers and crewmen from Rohna. The ship (with its crew of roughly 100 sailors), however, was never given any recognition for the rescue of over 600 HMT Rohna survivors. To this day (June, 2007), The Rohna Survivors Organization continues to try to have the Pioneer recognized for this extraordinary rescue operation. Operations in the invasion of Italy She protected critically important Allied convoys in the Mediterranean until assigned to the assault force for the Anzio operation early in January 1944. After training at Salerno, her group sortied from Naples on 21 January to sweep a mile-wide channel into the fire support and transport areas, and then swept these areas themselves. When the transports entered the newly cleared area, Pioneer began antisubmarine and antiaircraft patrol, and then resumed escort duties, bringing reinforcements to Anzio on 24 January. Desperate German resistance by land and air as well as from the sea prevented a breakout from Anzio. Pioneer guarded the beleaguered beachhead, patrolling to seaward, escorting supply and reinforcement movements, and sweeping mines dropped by enemy planes intent on isolating the beachhead by sea as it was by land. She returned to wider-ranging escort