A Ship Named Kankakee

By Jack Klasey

July 26, 2025

On the evening of April 1, 1955, a traffic jam spread along Washington Avenue north and south of the Kankakee River. Cars inched slowly across the Washington Avenue bridge with their occupants searching for something that wasn’t there.

They were looking in vain for a naval vessel, the U.S.S. Kankakee, that was supposed to be moored in the river just downstream of the dam. Hundreds of Kankakee-area residents had fallen victim to the first example of the Kankakee Daily Journal’s annual April Fool’s Day prank. Journal photographers had pasted a photo of the ship onto a view of the river. The fake picture was then run on the newspaper’s front page, along with a notice that the ship would be open for tours.

The U.S.S. Kankakee, of course, was no joke. It was an actual ship, a U.S. Navy Fleet Oiler (one of the “floating gas stations” that refueled other ships at sea). Commissioned on May 4, 1942, the 500-foot-long vessel carried huge quantities of both fuel oil and gasoline. It had a crew of 19 officers and 242 enlisted men.

During World War II, the ship sailed the Pacific Ocean, taking part in naval operations against Japanese island strongholds—Saipan, Formosa, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Japan itself. Active service in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans continued into the mid-1950s. The U.S.S. Kankakee earned six battle stars during World War II and one during the Korean War.

In November 1955, the ship went into temporary retirement as part of the Navy’s Atlantic Reserve fleet.  She was returned to active service in time to become part in the blockading fleet during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Between October 24, 1962, and December 5 of that year, she refueled 89 ships.

Three years later, the U.S.S. Kankakee played a supporting role in the United States’ space program. In June 1965, she was part of the 69-ship fleet deployed to recover Gemini IV astronauts James McDivit and Edward White following their four-day spaceflight. During the Gemini flight, White became the first American to perform a spacewalk.

The active career of the U.S.S. Kankakee came to an end on January 1, 1973, when she became part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet. In April 1975, after more than three decades of naval service, she was sold to be broken up for scrap.

Some elements of the ship live on, however. The wooden ship’s wheel and other artifacts are on display at the Kankakee County Museum. The ship’s official log books, as well as records of an organization formed by former crew members, are in the Museum’s research collection.

The U.S.S. Kankakee was named for the Kankakee River; so were three other ships, all of which belonged to the United States Coast Guard. First to bear the Kankakee name was a revenue cutter, launched in September 1863. The 138-foot-long vessel, equipped with both sails and a steam engine, carried a crew of 41. It took part in the blockade of Confederate port cities during the later years of the Civil War. In 1867, it was decommissioned and sold to Japan for use in its navy.

The second Kankakee operated by the Coast Guard was a 182-foot steel-hulled steamboat propelled by a stern paddlewheel.  The vessel was launched at Dubuque, Iowa, in 1919 and spent most of her career on the Mississippi River doing flood relief and rescue work. The vessel was sold, and most likely scrapped, in 1936.

The third Coast Guard ship named Kankakee is still on active duty, operating out of Memphis, Tennessee. Built in New Orleans and commissioned in 1990, the USCGC (U.S. Coast Guard Cutter) Kankakee is a 75-foot tender designed to maintain buoys and other aids to river navigation. The cutter pairs with a crane-equipped barge used when setting or removing buoys.

Jack Klasey is a former Journal reporter and a retired publishing executive. He can be contacted at jwklasey@comcast.net.