The SS ALCOA PIONEER was a C1-B type war-time construction delivered to the Alcoa Shipping Company in March 1941 by the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard in San Francisco. This yard was the only major shipbuilder on the West Coast prior to World War 11.
During the Allied invasion of the Philippines, Captain Andrew Gavin and his ship Alcoa Pioneer were engaged in transport and supply duties to the American forces and on November 19th 1944 the ship was anchored in San Pedro Bay. At 0710 hours a formation of three Japanese suicide planes were seen at an altitude of 6000 feet when they suddenly commenced to dive towards the assembled transport ships.
All of the ships in the convoy, and their escorts, opened fire on the attackers and at around 2000 feet the trio separated, each picking out an individual target ship. The centre plane went for the Alcoa Pioneer and, although hit several times and on fire, it hit its target, crashing on to the bridge deck killing at least five of the gunners and crew and critically wounding many others. Captain Gavin was knocked unconscious and suffered broken bones, but upon regaining his senses he immediately directed the manning of fire-fighting equipment and succeeded in extinguishing the flames before they could spread to the three forward holds which contained a cargo of gasoline.
Members of the crew quickly took the places of the dead and wounded gunners and kept up a continuous defence of the ship. After seeing that his wounded crew had been administered first-aid Captain Gavin supervised the emergency repairs to his ship, with the result that Alcoa Pioneer returned to the United States under her own power for a complete overhaul.
In his report Captain Gavin gave much praise to Boatswain Clark C Smith and Maintenance A.B John Peterson for their outstanding performance in fighting the fires and saving the ship. They were also instrumental in extricating Chief Officer Daniel Noonan who was seriously injured and pinned under twisted steel plates and beams in his cabin directly under the crash site.
After the war the ship continued to give quality service to Alcoa Shipping for another 25 years before she was broken up in 1970 at Valencia, Spain.

Photograph belongs to Stuart Smith.
Photographer unknown.