Task Force 16

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The designation Task Force 16 (TF 16) was used for multiple units of the U.S. Navy during World War II. Prior to American entry into the war the designation was applied to an element of the U.S. Navy's Neutrality Patrols in the Atlantic, built around the battleship [[ USS Mississippi (BB-41)|USS Mississippi]]. Next, In its most famous incarnation, in 1942-1943, it was built around the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, and became one of the most storied task forces in the United States Navy, participating in a number of the most important battles of the Pacific War. Later still, after March 1943, when the Pacific Fleet was subdivided into a series of numbered fleets, the TF16 designation was applied to Service Force, Pacific Fleet, the main logistical organization supporting the fleet at sea; this version of TF16 was characterized as an element of the First Fleet, an administrative organization under the direct control of Admiral Chester Nimitz. The first TF16 was created in the summer of 1941, after numerous vessels that had been transferred from the Pacific Fleet to the Atlantic as reinforcements arrived at Norfolk, and were promptly assigned to convoy escort duty. TF16 initially consisted of the battleship Mississippi, the heavy cruisers Quincy and Wichita, five destroyers, the auxiliary Semmes, the attack transport American Legion, the stores ship Mizar, and the amphibious cargo ship Almaack. This force was joined at sea by the carrier USS Wasp (CV-7) and her escorts, the destroyers O'Brien and Walke and, later, the heavy cruiser Vincennes. Wasp had been tasked with ferrying P-40 aircraft of the U.S. Army's 33rd Pursuit Squadron to Iceland to provide air cover for TF16s arrival and unloading, the initial stage in America's occupation of the island. After traveling as part of TF16 for a few days, on 6 August...