The 475-foot-long, 56-foot-beam USS Neches (AO-5) was one of only six entirely Navy- designed oilers built prior to the 1950s. Authorized by Congress in July 1918, she was laid down at the Boston Navy Yard on 28 June 1919, launched on 2 June 1920, and commissioned on 25 October of the same year. Prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Neches had served uneventfully, initially in the Atlantic Fleet and from 1922 primarily in the Pacific, based at San Diego. On 7 December 1941, she was en route to Pearl Harbor on a fuel freightering run; she arrived three days later, hurriedly discharged her cargo, and departed on a round trip to San Diego for more cargo fuel. Under Commander William B. Fletcher Jr., the Neches next was assigned to deliver a cargo of 45,000 barrels of fuel oil, 8,700 barrels of diesel fuel, and 100,000 gallons of gasoline to the western Pacific. At 1540 local time on 22 January 1942, overloaded by 850 tons and drawing 17 inches more than her nominal maximum draft, the oiler departed unescorted from Pearl Harbor and, after clearing the navigational channel, assumed a course of 180° at what was assumed to be 12 knots. Aboard were 17 officers, 1 warrant officer, and 218 enlisted, the latter including 65 sailors on board for transport. At 1730, discovering that the ship was not making her intended speed, because of her load and the current set, the commanding officer brought her course to 283° and increased power so she could arrive on time the next morning to rendezvous with her escort. He also, perhaps fatefully, decided not to employ zig-zagging to avoid possible enemy submarines.
At 0310 on 23 January, the Neches was hit on the starboard side by a dud torpedo; the resultant clang was thought by the duty watch to have been a watertight door slamming. A second torpedo hit the starboard side aft at 0319, flooding the engineroom and killing those in the sleeping compartment above. A third torpedo from the never-identified submarine struck the Neches on the port bow at 0330.
A minute later, gun crews on the portside 5-inch guns and .50-caliber machine guns commenced firing at the submarine, now seen dimly on the moonless night to be about 1,000-1,500 yards away. A few moments later, one of the ship’s 3-inch guns also got off a few rounds at the sub, which was believed to have fired her own deck gun several times. But the ship’s starboard list had increased to the point that none of the larger guns could be depressed enough to engage the submarine, which had been lost from view, and the commanding officer directed the .50-caliber machine guns above the bridge to cease fire to avoid bringing attention to the pilothouse area. The order to abandon the slowly flooding Neches was give at 0430.
At 0437, just as Commander Fletcher stepped off the starboard bridge wing, the ship disappeared beneath him. Most of the oiler’s generous complement of ship’s boats and life rafts had been launched successfully, but when a crew muster was taken after dawn, 57 enlisted personnel were missing and presumed lost. The survivors were spotted soon after dawn by patrolling seaplanes, and a Catalina landed to take off the most seriously wounded. By 1100, the remaining crew had been rescued by the destroyer Jarvis (DD-393). The Neches was the first Navy oiler lost during World War II; a new oiler of the same name was commissioned in September 1942.