USS Mount Olympus

  

"August 1943, when he was designated Aide and Flag Secretary on the staff of Commander Cruiser Division during action against enemy Japanese forces in operations ranging from the Solomon Islands through the Gilberts, the Marshalls, the Marianas 

 and culminating in the 

 First Battle of the Philippines, during the period September 5, 1943 to August 18, 1944…” 

reported to headquarters, Twelfth Naval District, in August 1944, and on October 7, 1944 was ordered to a shore assignment in the Bureau of Ordnance, Navy Department, Washington 

Mount Olympus departed from the East Coast in early July, arriving at Hawaii via the Panama Canal on 23 July. With the Commander, 3rd Amphibious Force, embarked, she was underway from Hawaii on 29 August.  

She arrived Leyte Gulf 20 October, there to serve as the floating headquarters for the huge U.S. Army invasion force. 

 The landing force was subjected to continual air attacks, but its survival was assured by the American naval victory in the Battle of Leyte Gulf,  

which destroyed the Japanese Navy as an effective combat force. 

DC, where he was placed in charge of research and development of naval guns, mounts and missile launchers.   "

Detached in October 1948, he assumed command of  

USS Mt. Olympus,  

and continued in command of that Amphibious Force, Flagship, in the Atlantic, until December 1949.  

He next had thirty-three months’ duty in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department, attained to the Division of International Affairs as Chief of Foreign Military Aid Matters.

From September 1951 to July 1953 he served as Sub Chief, Naval Mission to Brazil. The Brazilian Government awarded him the Order of Naval Merit, degree of Commander, which was presented personally by the Brazilian Chief of Naval Operations on October 9, 1953." 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/153531011/jackson_selover-champlin 

USS Mount Olympus moored in Antarctica, 1946-47 

"Mount Olympus departed from the East Coast in early July, arriving at Hawaii via the Panama Canal on 23 July. With the Commander, 3rd Amphibious Force, embarked, she was underway from Hawaii on 29 August.  

She arrived Leyte Gulf 20 October, there to serve as the floating headquarters for the huge U.S. Army invasion force.  

The landing force was subjected to continual air attacks, but its survival was assured by the American naval victory in  

the Battle of Leyte Gulf,  

which destroyed the Japanese Navy as an effective combat force." 

*

'In September, Mount Olympus was made the flagship for  

Operation Highjump, 

 the U.S. Navy's Antarctic Expedition.  

The ship sailed from Naval Station Norfolk on 2 December, passed through the Panama Canal to rendezvous with the Pacific group, and with it she reached the Bay of Whales, New Zealand on 16 January 1947.  

Mount Olympus was detached from the group on 11 February, and she returned to Norfolk on 17 April to become the flagship of Commander, Amphibious Group 2, in training along the East Coast of the United States and in the Caribbean Sea. 

 She became flagship and temporary headquarters for CINCNELM/CINCSOUTH in the Mediterranean Sea on 21 June 1951." 

___ 

"Operation HIGHJUMP,  

officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947,  

(also called Task Force 68), was a United States Navy (USN) operation to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV. 

The operation was organized by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr., USN, Officer in Charge, Task Force 68, and led by Rear Admiral Ethan Erik Larson, USN, Commanding Officer, Task Force 68. 

  Operation HIGHJUMP commenced 26 August 1946 and ended in late February 1947.  

Task Force 68 included 4,700 men, 70 ships, and 33 aircraft. 

HIGHJUMP's objectives, according to the U.S. Navy report of the operation, were:[3]

Training personnel and testing equipment in frigid conditions;

Consolidating and extending the United States' sovereignty over the largest practicable area of the Antarctic continent (publicly denied as a goal before the expedition ended);[3]

Determining the feasibility of establishing, maintaining, and utilizing bases in the Antarctic and investigating possible base sites;

Developing techniques for establishing, maintaining, and utilizing air bases on ice, with particular attention to later applicability of such techniques to operations in interior Greenland, where conditions are comparable to those in the Antarctic; 

Amplifying existing stores of knowledge of electromagnetic, geological, geographic, hydrographic, and meteorological propagation conditions in the area;

Supplementary objectives of the Nanook expedition (a smaller equivalent conducted off eastern Greenland). 

"Byrd discussed the lessons learned from the operation in an interview with Lee van Atta of International News Service held aboard the expedition's command ship, the USS Mount Olympus.  

The interview appeared in the Wednesday, March 5, 1947, edition of the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio and read in part as follows: 

"Admiral Richard E. Byrd warned today that the United States should adopt measures of protection against the possibility of an invasion of the country by hostile planes coming from the polar regions.  

The admiral explained that he was not trying to scare anyone, but the cruel reality is that in case of a new war, the United States could be attacked by planes flying over one or both poles.  

This statement was made as part of a recapitulation of his own polar experience, in an exclusive interview with International News Service. 

 Talking about the recently completed expedition, Byrd said that the most important result of his observations and discoveries is the potential effect that they have in relation to the security of the United States.  

The fantastic speed with which the world is shrinking – recalled the admiral – is one of the most important lessons learned during his recent Antarctic exploration. .

I have to warn my compatriots that the time has ended when we were able to take refuge in our isolation and rely on the certainty that the distances, the oceans, and the poles were a guarantee of safety." 

____ 

"The documentary about the expedition 

 The Secret Land was filmed entirely by military photographers (both USN and US Army) and narrated by actors Robert Taylor, Robert Montgomery, and Van Heflin. 

It features Chief of Naval Operations Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz in a scene where he is discussing Operation HIGHJUMP with admirals Byrd and Cruzen.  

The film re-enacted scenes of critical events, such as shipboard damage control and Admiral Byrd throwing items out of an airplane to lighten it to avoid crashing into a mountain.  

It won the 1948 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film."  

*

Central Group (Task Group 68.2)

Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, USN, Commanding Officer

Communications and Flagship USS Mount Olympus. Capt. R. R. Moore, USN, Commanding  

Carrier Group (Task Group 68.4)

Rear Adm. Richard E. Byrd, Jr. USN, (Ret), Officer in Charge

Aircraft carrier and flagship USS Philippine Sea. Capt. Delbert S. Cornwell, USN, Commanding