Tucson (CL-98) was an Oakland-class antiaircraft cruiser, named for the seat of Pima County, Arizona. Bethlehem Steel Co. laid her down at San Francisco on 23 December 1942. She was launched on 3 September 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Emmett S. Claunch, Sr., and commissioned on 3 February 1945 with Captain Arthur D. Ayrault in command. DANFS gives her 6,000 tons, a length of 541 feet 6 inches, a beam of 53 feet 2 inches, a draft of 20 feet, a speed of 33 knots, a complement of 623, twelve 5-inch guns, sixteen 40-millimeter guns, sixteen 20-millimeter guns, and eight 21-inch torpedo tubes.
After outfitting at San Francisco and shakedown out of San Diego she sailed for the western Pacific on 8 May 1945. She stopped at Pearl Harbor on 13 May for three weeks of training and went on west on 2 June. She lay overnight at Ulithi on 13 and 14 June and reached Leyte on the 16th. She was assigned to the screen of the Fast Carrier Task Force, Task Force 38, in Rear Admiral Gerald F. Bogan's Task Group 38.3, built around Essex (CV-9), Ticonderoga (CV-14), Randolph (CV-15), Monterey (CV-26), and Bataan (CVL-29). On 1 July she sortied from Leyte Gulf with the force and went north. On the 10th the carriers launched against Tokyo. On the 14th and 15th they struck Hokkaido and northern Honshu, and on the 17th and 18th they struck Tokyo again. On 24 and 28 July she was with the carriers south of Shikoku while their planes hit shipping in the Inland Sea, and on the 30th the planes went after Kobe and Nagoya. By the second week of August she was off northern Honshu again, and on the 13th the carriers hit Tokyo once more. Japan capitulated two days later. She earned one battle star for that service.
She stayed in the Far East with Task Force 38 east of Honshu, covering occupation forces moving into Japan. On 20 September she cleared the area, stopped at Okinawa two days later, called at Pearl Harbor, and reached San Francisco on 5 October. On the 23rd she went down the coast to San Pedro for the Navy Day celebration on the 27th and 28th, and on the 29th she shifted to San Diego for duty with the Pacific Fleet Training Command as an antiaircraft gunnery training ship. Between November 1945 and August 1946 she trained about 5,000 officers and men on the 5-inch, 40-millimeter, and 20-millimeter guns, and she went out from time to time to represent the Navy at events in Pacific coast ports. NavSource keeps Captain Ayrault in command through November 1946. On 6 September she entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for a three-month overhaul, for duty under Commander, Destroyers, Pacific Fleet.
Captain Elmer Paul Abernethy had her from November 1946 until 30 July 1947. She trained out of San Diego for a fleet exercise near Hawaii, stood out on 24 February 1947, and put into Pearl Harbor on 11 March. On the 18th she went out again to search northwest of Hawaii for survivors of the wrecked Fort Dearborn, and she was back at San Diego on 27 March. She resumed west coast operations until late summer, then departed on 28 July and, by way of Pearl Harbor, reached Yokosuka on 15 August. Captain Donald Fitzroy McLean relieved Abernethy on 30 July 1947 and had her into 1948, the list giving the year and no day. For two months she cruised the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea during the Communist-Nationalist fighting in Manchuria and northern China, visited Shanghai twice and Tsingtao once, returned to Yokosuka on 19 October, and reached San Diego on 6 November. She stayed on the west coast after that. Captain Stephen George Barchet had her from 1948. On 9 February 1949 she reported to Mare Island to begin inactivation. She was decommissioned on 11 June 1949, Barchet's last day on the NavSource list, and berthed with the San Francisco Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Her name was struck on 1 June 1966. The hulk was used for tests until 1970 and was sold on 24 February 1971 to the National Metal and Steel Corp., of Terminal Island, California, for scrapping.
A note on sources. The narrative follows the Naval History and Heritage Command DANFS entry for Tucson II (CL-98). The length line in that digitized copy prints "1. 541'6"" where the other ships of the group print "l." for length, and the September sentence prints "she cleared area." HyperWar's copy of the same history prints "she cleared the area" and, later, "to he conducted" where the Navy text prints "to be conducted." The story uses the length as 541 feet 6 inches and "cleared the area." Commanding officers are NavSource's list for CL-98. That list prints Ayrault's middle name as Delancy and gives his relief only as November 1946. Uboat.net, commander 12588, uses Delancey and the same November 1946 end. The Navy Department Library biography page for him returned not found when it was requested, so nothing from that page is used. Hall of Valor, recipient 306296, is the Legion of Merit with Combat "V" for 10 July to 14 August 1945 and calls the duty detached special missions. DANFS describes her in the carrier screen on those days and does not describe detached missions. NavSource's fate line sells the hulk on 24 February 1971 to NASSCO, Terminal Island. DANFS names the National Metal and Steel Corp. The photograph NH 98518 is captioned only as underway circa the later 1940s, so no caption is attached. She earned one battle star. The July and August 1945 strikes on Japan have no separate slug in the battle list used here, and the call at Okinawa on 22 September 1945 was after the surrender. Digitized copies of the pages named above are the texts used.