USS Pandemus (ARL-18) was one of 39 Achelous-class landing craft repair ships built for the United States Navy during World War II and was in commission from 1945 to 1946 and from 1951 to 1968.

Pandemous originally was laid down as the LST-542-class tank landing ship USS LST-650 on 20 July 1944 by the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company at Seneca, Illinois.

She was put to sea from Shanghai on 21 December 1945 and steamed by way of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to San Pedro, Los Angeles, arriving there on 5 February 1946.

After fitting out at Merrill Stevens Shipyard at Jacksonville, Florida, she visited Norfolk, Virginia, on 23 January 1952 and arrived at her new home port, the U.S.

Naval Minecraft Base at Charleston, South Carolina, on 30 March 1952 and began 16½ years of service supporting minesweeping operations along the United States East Coast from Newport, Rhode Island, to Key West, Florida, and in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.