Hitchiti’s final mission

Aerial broadside view of the USS Hitchiti (ATF-103) underway off the coast of Hawaii, 12 January 1970, by Chief Photographer’s Mate T.J. Taylor, National Archives K-81123 Named for a North Florida/South Georgia Creek tribe, the 205-foot Abnaki (Apache)-class fleet tug USS Hitchiti (ATF-103) was built at the Charleston Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. over nine months from August 1943 to May 1944. Her first of 21 U.S. Navy skippers was LT Harry Alonzo Guthrie, a regular who had volunteered in 1927 and worked his way up through the ranks. After shakedown in the Chesapeake Bay area, Hitchiti sailed for the Pacific, reaching Pearl Harbor with four tows (AFDL-32, YO-94, YO-95, and YTB-376) on 26 August 1944. She then took part in the Leyte Gulf landings, followed by towing and rescue operations during the hard-fought Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns as the Pacific war drew near to the Japanese home islands in the spring of 1945, earning two battle stars (Luzon operation and Okinawa Gunto…