query: operator uss griffin 
supports: The United States Maritime Service (USMS) was established in 1938 under the provisions of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936. The mission of the organization is to train people to become officers and crewmembers on merchant ships that form the United States Merchant Marine per Title 46 U.S. Code 51701. Heavily utilized during World War II, the USMS has since been largely dissolved and/or absorbed into other federal departments, but its commissioned officers continue to function as administrators and instructors at the United States Merchant Marine Academy and the several maritime academies. Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the fifth-most populous city in the United States, with an estimated population of 1,567,442 and more than 6 million in the seventh-largest metropolitan statistical area, . Philadelphia is the economic and cultural anchor of the Delaware Valleya region located in the Northeastern United States at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers with 7.2 million people residing in the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States. USS Griffin ( AS - 13 ) , originally Mormacpenn , a United States Maritime Commission Type C3 pre-war cargo ship , was launched by Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock , Chester , Pennsylvania , 11 October 1939 . She served briefly with Moore - McConnack , Inc. , was acquired by the Navy in 1940 , renamed Griffin ( AS - 13 ) and converted to a submarine tender at Robbins Dry Dock and Repair Company , Brooklyn , N.Y. Griffin commissioned 31 July 1941 , Comdr . S. D. Jupp in command . Her conversion completed in September 1941 , Griffin conducted shakedown off the East Coast and sailed with a sub squadron to Newfoundland 22 November 1941 . Recalled to Newport , Rhode Island , after Pearl Harbor , the ship was assigned to the United States Pacific Fleet , and departed 14 February 1942 for Australia . Griffin arrived Brisbane 15 April 1942 to tend Submarine Squadron 5 . Early in the war , the United States developed a major submarine base in Australia ; and submarines tended by Griffin struck hard at Japanese shipping while surface forces strengthened themselves for the first Pacific offensives . During this period Griffin also repaired merchant ships at a time of great need . The tender departed Brisbane for the Fiji Islands 11 November 1942 and 1 December 1942 sailed to Bora Bora to escort Submarine Division 53 to the Panama Canal Zone . Arriving Balboa 7 January 1943 , Griffin continued north to Oakland , California , arriving 20 January 1943 . After repairs at San Diego , California , Griffin again departed for the Pacific , sailing 27 April 1943 . She arrived Pearl Harbor 4 May 1943 to take up her vital support duties , and remained until 3 January 1944 . The ship performed refits , battle repairs , and general upkeep on submarines before sailing to Mare Island to arrive 10 January 1944 . Griffin returned to Pearl Harbor 17 March 1944 , and departed 8 April 1944 for the great submarine base at Fremantle , Western Australia . She arrived 8 May and immediately set about servicing the growing submarine fleet . The tender remained at Fremantle until 20 November 1944 , during her Stay founding a rubber fabrication shop which solved one of the great shortages on board the submarines . She then moved closer to the Japanese shipping lanes at Mios Woendi , New Guinea , arriving 9 December 1944 . There she tended submarines , surface craft of all kinds , and even lent her repair equipment to shore facilities . Griffin remained at Mios Woendi until 1 February 1945 when she sailed for Subic Bay , via Leyte . Arriving 10 February 1945 , Griffin set up one of the initial submarine repair facilities in the Philippines since 1942 . She also helped to salvage damaged destroyer La Vallette ( DD - 448 ) . Shifting base , the tender sailed 22 March 1945 via Leyte , and arrived in the Hawaiian Islands 10 April 1945 . After a brief stay at Pearl she departed 10 May 1945 for Midway , arrived 4 days later , and set up another repair facility for submarines . By that time submarines supported by Griffin had practically annihilated Japanese merchant shipping and had played a decisive role in the great Pacific offensive . She remained at Midway until 10 September 1945 , then sailed to Pearl Harbor and San Francisco , entering the bay 24 September . Decommissioned at Mare Island 12 October 1945 , the ship was placed in reserve . Later she transferred to the Stockton group , Pacific Reserve Fleet , where she remained in reserve , in service , tending reserve submarines , until at least 1967 . She was stricken in 1972 and transferred to MARAD . She was sold in 1973 . The United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and replaced the United States Shipping Board which had existed since World War I. It was intended to formulate a merchant shipbuilding program to design and build five hundred modern merchant cargo ships to replace the World War I vintage vessels that comprised the bulk of the United States Merchant Marine, and to administer a subsidy system authorized by the Act to offset the cost differential between building in the U.S. and operating ships under the American flag. It also formed the United States Maritime Service for the training of seagoing ship's officers to man the new fleet. A submarine tender is a type of ship that supplies and supports submarines. A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term most commonly refers to a large, crewed vessel. It is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely operated vehicles and robots, as well as medium-sized or smaller vessels, such as the midget submarine and the wet sub. Used as an adjective in phrases such as "submarine cable", "submarine" means "under the sea". The noun "submarine" evolved as a shortened form of "submarine boat" (and is often further shortened to "sub"). For reasons of naval tradition, submarines are usually referred to as "boats" rather than as "ships", regardless of their size. The United States Merchant Marine refers to either United States civilian mariners, or to U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners, and the merchant vessels, are managed by a combination of the government and private sectors, and engage in commerce or transportation of goods and services in and out of the navigable waters of the United States. The Merchant Marine primarily transports cargo and passengers during peacetime; in times of war, the Merchant Marine can be an auxiliary to the United States Navy, and can be called upon to deliver military personnel and materiel for the military. Merchant Marine officers may also be commissioned as military officers by the Department of Defense. This is commonly achieved by commissioning unlimited tonnage Merchant Marine officers as Strategic Sealift Officers in the Naval Reserves. Brooklyn is the most populous borough of New York City, with a Census-estimated 2,636,735 residents in 2015. It borders the borough of Queens at the southwestern end of Long Island. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, the most populous county in the U.S. state of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, after the county of New York (which is coextensive with the borough of Manhattan). Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania German: "Pennsylvaani"), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle. The commonwealth borders Delaware to the southeast, Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to the northwest, New York to the north, and New Jersey to the east. The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over a land area of just , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. A global power city, New York City exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment, its fast pace defining the term "New York minute". Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States, with a population of 33,972 at the 2010 census. Chester is situated on the Delaware River, between the cities of Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. The current mayor of Chester is Thaddeus Kirkland, elected on November 3, 2015 and served his first day in office on January 4, 2016. A U.S. state is a constituent political entity of the United States of America. There are 50 states, which are bound together in a union with each other. Each state holds administrative jurisdiction over a defined geographic territory, and shares its sovereignty with the United States federal government. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the federal government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered by certain types of court orders (e.g., paroled convicts and children of divorced spouses who are sharing custody). Long Island is an island located just off the northeast coast of the United States and a region within the U.S. state of New York. Stretching east-northeast from New York Harbor into the Atlantic Ocean, the island comprises four counties: Kings and Queens (which comprise the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, respectively) to the west; then Nassau and Suffolk to the east. However, many people in the New York metropolitan area (even those living in Brooklyn and Queens) colloquially use the term "Long Island" (or "The Island") exclusively to refer to the NassauSuffolk county area collectively, which is mainly suburban in character. More generally, "Long Island" may also refer collectively both to the main Island as well as its nearby, surrounding outer barrier islands. North of the island is the Long Island Sound, across from which lie the states of Connecticut and a small part of Rhode Island across the Block Island Sound. Across the Sound, to the northwest, lies Westchester County on mainland New York. To the west, Long Island is separated from the Bronx and the island of Manhattan by the East River. To the extreme southwest, it is separated from the New York City borough of Staten Island and the U.S. state of New Jersey by Upper New York Bay, the Narrows, and Lower New York Bay. To the east lie Block Island and numerous smaller islands.
candidates: ontario philadelphia refer southern united states navy united states of america world war ii
answer: united states navy