The USS Magpie (AMS-25), originally designated YMS-400, was a YMS-1-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. Constructed by Henry B. Nevins, Inc., on City Island, New York, she was laid down on July 3, 1942, launched on March 24, 1943, and commissioned on May 15, 1943. The vessel featured a wooden hull typical of minesweepers of her class, designed for shallow water operations and mine clearance. Initially, YMS-400 departed Staten Island for Norfolk, Virginia, in June 1943, serving briefly at Yorktown before escorting merchant ships to Miami and Key West. In July, she reported to the Caribbean Sea frontier, undertaking convoy escort and patrol duties out of Curaçao, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad. During her Caribbean tour, she participated in mine sweeping operations in the Gulf of Paria following the German surrender, aimed at clearing moored mines to facilitate naval exercises. After the war, she was dry docked and refitted in California before sailing via Hawaii to Guam and the Philippines, where she continued minesweeping in bays around Luzon and Mindanao. Following the Japanese surrender, she remained active in minesweeping operations until early April 1946, when she joined her fleet in Leyte Gulf to ride out a tsunami caused by the 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake. On February 17, 1947, she was named USS Magpie and reclassified as AMS-25. Based at Guam, she conducted minesweeping and exercises across the Marshall, Caroline, and Palau Islands for the next three years. With the outbreak of the Korean War, Magpie was assigned to minesweeping duties off Korea in September 1950. Tragically, on October 1, 1950, she struck a floating mine near Chusan Po and sank. Twenty-one crew members, including her commanding officer, Lt. (jg.) Warren R. Person, were lost, with 12 survivors rescued by her sister ship Merganser. Magpie was decommissioned shortly thereafter on October 20, 1950. She earned one battle star for her service in Korea. Notably, her remains of Ensign Robert W. Langwell were discovered in 2008 and interred at Arlington National Cemetery in 2010. The vessel’s service highlights her role in minesweeping operations during World War II and the Korean War, reflecting the essential contribution of minesweepers to naval safety and operations during mid-20th-century conflicts.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.