Seattle, Washington March 5, 1944
SS John Sevier arrived at the docks. She had sailed from this city months ago loaded with ammunition and spare parts for the army that had landed in Luzon. She had taken the long swing around, first to Hawaii, and then Samoa and then through the Coral Sea before arriving at Darwin where a small convoy was formed. Half a dozen merchant ships escorted by a pair of Australian built minesweepers and a second hand Dutch destroyer brought her safely to Singapore. A larger convoy left that citadel ten days later with cruisers and destroyers as guardians to Palawan where a portion of her cargo was needed. Four days later, she headed to Subic Bay where her holds were emptied.
She then rode high at anchor for another week until a convoy was available for the journey back to Singapore. Tin, rubber, manganese and wood filled her cavernous holds. Eleven days after arriving she left again. This time, she was escorted by American warships that led her and seventeen other heaily laden merchant ships through the San Bernidino Straits. In those straits, a pair of gunboats claimed a submarine kill. The convoy lost the heavy escorts once they were two hundred miles east of Luzon but the gunboats and destroyer escorts stayed with them to Guam. There, she refueled and her crew swept a doubleheader in softball before her master took her back to sea to steam independently home. As she approached the Straits of Juan de Fuca, a wooden Coast Guard patrol boat led her through the minefields and past the boom defenses and into the port. Longshoremen were soon ready to unload the riches of the Orient from her hull even as her crew collected their earnings and made plans for an assault on the waterfront bars.