USS Suamico (AO-49) was the lead ship of her class of Type T2-SE-A1 fleet oilers of the United States Navy.
The ship was laid down as the SS Harlem Heights under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 319) on 27 September 1941 by the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. of Chester, Pennsylvania.
Launched on 30 May 1942; sponsored by Mrs. W. Potter; she was delivered to the Navy on 27 June 1942; converted to a fleet oiler at Brooklyn, New York, by the Bethlehem Steel Co.; and commissioned as USS Suamico (AO-49), on 10 August 1942.
She arrived in Nouméa, New Caledonia, late in November and then shifted to Suva Harbor, Fiji, in early December to unload her liquid cargo.
Suamico made another round-trip voyage from San Pedro to the South Pacific in January 1943; then returned to New Caledonia in mid-February.
In March, Suamico made a round-trip voyage from Espiritu Santo to New Caledonia and back; then, in late April, she got underway for San Francisco where she underwent repairs until mid-May.
Fueling at sea followed in the vicinity of the Gilbert Islands; and, on 9 December, she returned to Funafuti and cast off for Pearl Harbor where she arrived on the 20th.
On 12 February, all hands went to general quarters as condition red prevailed during enemy air attacks on Roi, located at the northern tip of the lagoon.
Suamico entered Segond Channel at Espiritu Santo on 7 March and remained there until shifting to Pallikula Bay on the 21st to be topped off.
At noon, while she was fueling the battleship Pennsylvania (BB-38), two Japanese suicide dive bombers attacked the escort carrier Manila Bay (CVE-61) about 2,000 yards off the oiler's stern.
At midnight on 2 July, general quarters brought all hands to battle stations, but the enemy aircraft bypassed the darkened ships and concentrated on the troops ashore.
Heavy fighting and many fires were visible ashore as brilliant flashes of red and white lit up the midnight blackness.
Her closest scrape came on 26 October, when a Japanese torpedo bomber swept in low over the water and barely cleared Suamico's stack.
On 28 October, she sought refuge at Kossol Passage in the Palau Islands, but put to sea again that evening when a supposed enemy task force did not materialize.
She arrived there on the 14th, fueled the ships in the harbor, and made short shuttles to Tanahmerah Bay and out to sea for gunnery practice until late December.
Two days later, she negotiated the Surigao Strait, crossed the Mindanao Sea, rounded the southern end of Negros, and headed north to support the Lingayen invasion.
There were many tense moments because the Japanese were expected to launch land-based torpedo bombers across the narrow straits, but this fear proved groundless.
The escort aircraft carrier burst into flames about 2,000 yards from Suamico and was later abandoned and sunk by American destroyers.
The aircraft came in directly out of the sun, swooped low over Pecos, and dropped a bomb astern of that oiler as he started his run on Suamico.
The "Zeke" came in at masthead height, slightly to starboard astern, and then, curving to port, ran smack into Suamico's curtain of anti-aircraft fire.
On 8 January, she anchored during the day in Mangarin Bay, put to sea again that night for evasive action, and returned to the anchorage again the next morning.
On the day the American flag was raised on Iwo Jima, the officers and crew of Suamico viewed the historic scene from just off shore.
She returned to Buckner Bay on 22 August and remained there until 13 September when she sailed for Kōchi, Shikoku Island, Japan, to fuel a group of minesweepers.
Sailing via Tokyo, Suamico headed back to the United States and arrived in San Francisco on 13 December.
In the late 1950s, she operated frequently in the Caribbean Sea, while the intensification of the Vietnam War brought her back to the western Pacific in the mid-60s.
The ship was returned to the Maritime Administration (MARAD) on 22 January 1975, and sold the same day to Fuji Marden & Co., Hong Kong, for scrapping.