USS Neosho ( AO - 23 ) USS " Neosho " ( AO - 23 ) was a " Cimarron " - class fleet oiler serving with the United States Navy , the second ship to be named for the Neosho River in Kansas and Oklahoma . She was laid down under Maritime Commission contract by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company , Kearny , New Jersey , 22 June 1938 ; launched on 29 April 1939 ; sponsored by Mrs . Emory S . Land , wife of Rear Admiral Emory S . Land ( Ret . ) , Chairman of the Maritime Commission ; and commissioned on 7 August 1939 , with Commander AV . E . A . Mullan in command . Conversion at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard was completed on 7 July 1941 , " Neosho " immediately began the vital task of ferrying aviation fuel from west coast ports to Pearl Harbor . On such a mission she arrived in Pearl Harbor on 6 December , discharged a full cargo to Naval Air Station Ford Island , and prepared for the return passage . Service history . Next morning , the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor found " Neosho " alert to danger ; her captain — Commander John S . Phillips — got her underway and maneuvered safely through the Japanese fire , concentrated on the battleship s moored at Ford Island , to a safer area of the harbor . Her guns fired throughout the attack , splashing one enemy plane and driving off others . Three of her men were wounded by a strafing attacker . For the next five months , " Neosho " sailed with the aircraft carrier s or independently , since escort ships — now few and far between — could not always be spared to guard even so precious a ship and cargo . Late in April , as the Japanese threatened a southward move against Australia and New Zealand by attempting to advance their bases in the Southwest Pacific , " Neosho " joined Task Force 17 ( TF 17 ) . At all costs , the sealanes to the dominions had to be kept open , and they had to be protected against attack and possible invasion . As the American and Japanese fleets sought each other out in the opening maneuvers of the climactic Battle of the Coral Sea on 6 May 1942 , " Neosho " refueled the carrier and heavy cruiser , then retired from the carrier force with a lone escort , the destroyer . Next day at 10 : 00 , Japanese aircraft spotted the two ships , and believing them to be a carrier and her escort , launched the first of two attacks which sank " Sims " and left " Neosho " — victim of seven direct hits and a suicide dive by one of the bombers — ablaze aft and in danger of breaking in two . She had shot down at least three of the attackers . One of her crewmen , Oscar V . Peterson , was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his efforts to save the ship in spite of his severe injuries suffered in the attack . Superb seamanship and skilled damage control work kept " Neosho " afloat for the next four days . The sorely stricken ship was first located by a RAAF aircraft , then an American PBY Catalina flying boat . At 13 : 00 on 11 May , the destroyer arrived , rescued the 123 survivors and sunk by gunfire the ship they had so valiantly kept afloat against impossible odds . With " Henley " came word that the American fleet had succeeded in turning the Japanese back , marking the end of their southward expansion in World War II . Awards . " Neosho " received two battle star s for her service .