USS Turkey (AM-13) was a Lapwing-class minesweeper the United States Navy, thus named after the bird, not after the country which in 1917 was an enemy in the ongoing World War I.

Although completed too late to see service during World War I, Turkey took part in the gigantic operation to clear the mine barrage which had been laid in the North Sea during this conflict.

After delaying putting to sea due to heavy fog, the ships got underway to carry out their assignment but seemed dogged with misfortune and bad luck from the beginning.

After 15 years in reserve, Turkey returned to the West Coast of the United States in September 1937 and was fitted out at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California.

On 7 December of that year, she lay moored in a nest of her sister ships at the Coal Docks at Pearl Harbor, when Japanese planes launched a surprise attack on the unsuspecting Pacific Fleet.

A number of riflemen armed with Springfield 1903 bolt-action rifles roamed the decks looking for good vantage points from which to fire at the attacking planes.

When all Japanese planes had departed the area, Turkey and her sister ships labored to salvage the critically damaged battleships which were partially sunk in the mud and oily waters off Ford Island.

She conducted minesweeping patrols, provided local escort services, and towed targets for the United States Marines shore batteries on Samoa.

Operating as a unit of Service Squadron 6, she conducted these activities through late February, after which she underwent more repair work at Pearl Harbor from 1 March to 24 April.

Following post-repair trials and practice torpedo-recovery operations in Hawaiian waters, she headed for the Marshalls on 10 May 1944 – in company with USS Preserver and towing barges YOGL-7 and YW-68 – and arrived at Majuro on 25 May.

After harbor duty there, she sailed for Ngulu Atoll on 17 October to assist in salvage operations for USS Montgomery, which had been damaged by a mine explosion earlier that day.

She returned to Ulithi on the 23rd and, four days later, assisted the torpedo-damaged USS Houston into the harbor after the cruiser had been struck off Formosa by a Japanese aircraft-launched torpedo.

While Turkey was towing YOG-21 alongside USS Essex, the minesweeper's foremast caught in one of the carrier's flight deck radio antenna braces and was broken in three places.

In early February, she assisted in preparations for the Iwo Jima landings before proceeding, via Kossol Roads in the Palaus, to San Pedro Bay, off Leyte.

Arriving in San Pedro Bay on 13 May, she commenced harbor operations and continued them until 7 June, when she began 10 days of upkeep alongside USS Prometheus.