USS Tulsa ( PG - 22 ) USS " Tulsa " ( PG - 22 ) , nicknamed the " Galloping Ghost of the South China Coast " , was a " USS Asheville ( PG - 21 ) " - class gunboat in the United States Navy that was in commission from 1923 to 1946 . She was named after the city of Tulsa , Oklahoma , and the county seat of Tulsa County . " Tulsa " was laid down on 9 December 1919 at the Charleston Navy Yard ; launched on 25 August 1922 ; sponsored by Miss Dorothy V . McBirney ; and commissioned there on 3 December 1923 , Lieutenant Commander Robert M . Doyle , Jr . , in temporary command . Lt . Cdr . Doyle assumed his regular duties as executive officer on 14 December 1923 when Commander MacGillivray Milne assumed command . Service history . Pre - World War II . " Tulsa " left Charleston Navy Yard on 19 January 1924 , bound for the Caribbean to join the Special Service Squadron . She called at Key West , Florida , on 22 January , before proceeding to Baytown , Texas , where she took on fuel four days later . The ship spent the next five years on station in Central American waters , " showing the flag " and calling at such places as Tuxpan and Vera Cruz , Mexico ; Guantanamo Bay , Cuba ; and at ports in Puerto Rico and the Canal Zone . In between cruises with the Special Service Squadron , she returned to Boston , Massachusetts , for yard repair work . When civil strife broke out in Nicaragua in the late 1920s , details of marines and bluejackets from " Tulsa " landed to protect lives and preserve property . When not engaged in these duties , the patrol gunboat conducted routine training exercises in waters near the Panama Canal Zone and visited ports in Honduras . " En route " for the west coast late in 1928 , " Tulsa " transited the Panama Canal as she prepared for duty in the Far East . She departed San Francisco , California , on 24 January 1929 , called at Honolulu and Guam , and proceeded to Manila . Designated flagship of the South China Patrol on 1 April , " Tulsa " operated out of Hong Kong , British Crown Colony ; and Guangzhou , China , for cruises up the Pearl River and along the south China coast . At Guangzhou in May 1929 , she witnessed the bombing of Chinese naval vessels by airplanes of the opposing faction in a Chinese civil war flaring at the time . Relieved in June by as flagship of the South China Patrol , she steamed up the coast to Shanghai , beginning a two - week deployment with the Yangtze Patrol in which she cruised as far upriver as Hankou . Assigned new duties as station ship at Tientsin in north China , " Tulsa " headed north in July 1929 to serve as a mobile source of information for the Commander in Chief , Asiatic Fleet ( CINCAF ) . She continued under the direct operational control of CINCAF into the 1930s , being later reassigned to the South China Patrol and observing conditions along the south China coast during the period following the outbreak of the undeclared Sino - Japanese war in July 1937 . As tensions increased in the Orient in 1940 and 1941 , Admiral Thomas C . Hart , CINCAF , incrementally reduced the Asiatic Fleet ' s presence in Chinese waters . Withdrawn to the Philippines in May 1941 , " Tulsa " joined the Inshore Patrol , guarding the sea approaches to Manila Bay . World War II . On 10 December 1941 , two days after the outbreak of war in the Philippines , a heavy Japanese air attack devastated Cavite , the base of the Asiatic Fleet , near Manila . Standing in from the Corregidor minefields , " Tulsa " anchored off the burning base as the last Japanese planes departed . She called away all of her boats and sent fire and rescue parties ashore to bring off what wounded could be rescued from the holocaust . At 19 : 00 , she recalled all hands that were ashore ; and , within hours , " Tulsa " , , , and retired toward Balikpapan , Borneo . After a brief stay at that port , she called at Makassar before receiving orders to proceed to Surabaya , Java , in the Netherlands East Indies , where she spent Christmas . Then , steaming independently , she cruised to Tjilatjap , on the south coast of Java , where her landing force began to receive training in jungle warfare . The plan to use " Tulsa " s bluejackets as infantry in a last - ditch defense of Java never progressed beyond the initial training stage , and her erstwhile ground troops returned to the ship as she was being outfitted to become a convoy escort vessel . Equipped with a home - made depth charge rack constructed by the ship ' s crew , " Tulsa " now boasted an antisubmarine capacity and began escorting merchantmen along the south coast of Java to Tjilatjap , the only port on the island still out of reach of Japanese bombers . While engaged on convoy duty in late February , " Tulsa " received orders to proceed to a point to the south of Java . " En route " , she learned that her mission included searching for survivors of the seaplane tender , sunk on 26 February 1942 . When she arrived at the scene , however , she found only traces of wreckage , but no survivors . Unbeknownst to " Tulsa " , " Langley " s survivors had already been rescued by and . After this apparently fruitless rescue attempt , " Tulsa " came upon the scene of the sinking of British merchant ship " City of Manchester " . " Whippoorwill " already had begun rescue operations , yet needed medical facilities which " Tulsa " had on board . The gunboat hove to and assisted the minesweeper in the lifesaving , then returned to Tjilatjap where she awaited instructions , ready for sea at a moment ' s notice . With Java being rapidly encircled by the onrushing Japanese , orders to retire were not long in coming . On 1 March 1942 . " Tulsa " , " Asheville " , " Lark " , and crept out of Tjilatjap , bound for Australia . While the other three ships steamed resolutely onward , " Asheville " soon developed engine difficulties and fell behind , only to be trapped and sunk by superior Japanese surface forces . " Tulsa " and her two companions arrived in Australian waters shortly thereafter . They were the last surface ships of the Asiatic Fleet to survive the Japanese onslaught in the East Indies ; and they escaped , by a hairsbreadth , the fate which befell " Asheville " . For the seven months following her arrival in Fremantle , she engaged in routine patrols off the Australian coast before being refitted at Sydney in October 1942 . Here , she received British ASDIC , degaussing equipment , Y - gun , and 20 mm anti - aircraft autocannon s . Thus outfitted , she served once again as a convoy escort , occasionally towing targets as well . In the latter half of 1942 , she was attached to Submarine Forces , Southwest Pacific , and operated independently out of Brisbane as a target for the submarines out of Fremantle . She then gave submariners practice in making approaches and battle surfacing . With the beginning of the Buna - Gona offensives in New Guinea , " Tulsa " escorted PT boats to take part in that campaign and operated between Milne Bay , New Guinea , and Cairns , Australia . When the PT boat base at Kona Kope , on the southeastern shores of Milne Bay , was established in November 1942 , " Tulsa " brought in much - needed equipment to aid in the operations being - conducted from that base . But five days before Christmas 1942 , " Tulsa " grounded on an uncharted pinnacle and damaged her ASDIC gear , necessitating a return to yard facilities for repairs . Soon returning to the war zone , she resumed patrols off Milne Bay . On the night of 20 January 1943 , six Japanese bombers attacked the ship . In the short , sharp action which followed , " Tulsa " put up a spirited defense with her 3 - inch and 20 mm antiaircraft battery , driving off the attackers with no damage to herself , while dodging 12 bombs . For the remainder of 1943 , she continued operating in the New Guinea - Australian area , tending PT boats , escorting supply ships , and serving as flagship of the 7th Fleet . On one occasion while serving as a PT boat tender , " Tulsa " towed " PT - 109 " , later commanded by future U . S . president Lt . ( jg . ) John F . Kennedy , USNR . After a major overhaul in December 1943 , she resumed operations in the Milne Bay - Cape Cretin area . She departed the bay on 8 January 1944 , with a fuel barge in tow , " en route " to Cape Cretin . There , she joined , " LST - 453 " , and SS " Mulcra " , to serve as headquarters ship for Capt . Bern C . Anderson , Commander , Task Unit 76 . 5 . 3 ( TU 76 . 5 . 3 ) . Under the control of Commander , Escorts and Mine - craft Squadrons , 7th Fleet , she served in the Finschafen - Buna area and participated in the Hollandia strike on 26 April and the Wakde landing on 17 May . She then continued in her role of escort vessel and patrol craft in the New Guinea - Australia area before proceeding to the Philippines in November 1944 . Returning to the scene of her hurried departure nearly four years before , " Tulsa " continued operations with the 7th Fleet in the Philippines . Renaming and decommissioning . On 18 December 1944 , she was renamed " Tacloban " , after a town on the island of Leyte , where American forces had landed a scant two months earlier , freeing the name " Tulsa " to be used for the planned USS " Tulsa " ( CA - 129 ) . As the U . S . Navy swept northward towards the Japanese home islands , and fierce fighting ensued on Okinawa and Iwo Jima , " Tacloban " performed the necessary tasks of convoy escort and local patrol vessel at fleet anchorages . On 26 August 1945 , she was detached from duty with the Local Defense Force , Macajalar Bay , on the northwestern coast of Mindanao , and sent to Leyte . Arriving a week later , she received orders to accompany USCGC " Ingham " ( WPG - 35 ) and " LCI - 230 " to Buckner Bay , Okinawa . On 7 September , " en route " to her destination , " Tacloban " was slowed by an overheated bearing , and her speed dropped to . Left to proceed in company with " LCI - 230 " , " Tacloban " limped into Buckner Bay on 13 September . Task Force 74 ( TF 74 ) , to which she had been attached , sailed for Shanghai , China , two days later ; but " Tacloban " , an " Old China Hand , " could not make the trip and remained at Buckner Bay . Following voyage repairs , she continued across the Pacific and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 18 December 1945 . Thirteen days later , she headed for the California coast and arrived at San Francisco , on 10 January 1946 . Aged and worn , " Tacloban " was decommissioned on 6 March ; struck from the Navy list on 17 April ; and turned over to the War Shipping Administration , Maritime Commission on 12 October for disposal . Awards . " Tulsa " received two battle stars for her World War II service .