I came across an interesting photo of USS OAKLAND "dated 4 December 1943" which provides some lessons about the dates found on the mounting card captions of 80-G photos at NARA and the wear and tear on the paint of the ATLANTA class cruisers in general. See first attached image.
This photo really got my attention because I had scanned sometime ago an aerial photo of Pearl Harbor anchorage dated 13 December 1943. In that photo was USS OAKLAND (CL-95) based on the fact that none of her ATLANTA "2nd group" sisters had yet to arrive at Pearl Harbor. And when they did arrive, they had been painted in the newer dazzle camo.
First lesson is about dates on 80-G card captions. I always treat the dates as suspect and generally at most the real date "maybe" somewhere earlier than the one shown on the caption. USS OAKLAND's DANFS entries state that she first arrived at Pearl Harbor on 4 November 1943. Shortly afterwards she departed Pearl and was assigned to TG 50.3 as part of Operation Galvanic - Gilbert Island Landings in November 1943. The first actions took place on 19 November with USN airstrikes. On 20 November the Japanese attacked and OAKLAND was credited with downing four aircraft in her first combat action. On 26 November OAKLAND was reassigned to TG 50.1 and again was involved in a Japanese airstrike on 4 December 1943. So I don't know if this photo was taken on 20 November or 4 December 1943? Plus it is strange that the photo was credited to a photographer onboard USS MINNEAPOLIS (CA-36), when as far as I can tell she wasn't part of the same Task Groups. However, CruDiv mates NEW ORLEANS and SAN FRANCISCO assigned to TF 52 were attached to TG 50.1 on 26 November. So maybe MINNEAPOLIS was as well and the references just missed it or since MINNEAPOLIS was the unit Flag, she collected the photos. At any rate OAKLAND's DANFS entry goes on to state that TG 50.1 returned to Pearl Harbor and arrived on 9 December 1943. But MINNEAPOLIS (along with NEW ORLEANS and SAN FRANCISCO) also returned to Pearl harbor on 9 December 1943.
This brings me to the Pearl Harbor image dated 13 December 1943. See second and third attached images showing the general anchorage area and a cropped view of OAKLAND. I have ID a few of the easier cruisers in the view. USS OAKLAND being the only ATLANTA 2nd group unit in view, USS MINNEAPOLIS (CA-36) because of her unique camo, and USS BOSTON (CA-69) because her sister USS BALTIMORE was elsewhere and didn't return to Pearl until 30 December and BOSTON had just arrived at Pearl Harbor on 6 December 1943. I strongly suspect that the two cruisers tied up with MINNEAPOLIS are SAN FRANCISCO and NEW ORLEANS. It appears from ships present and the dates that ere there, that the 13 December date is probably correct within a couple of days anyway.
Second lesson is about the wear and tear of the paint on the hull of ATLANTA class cruisers. Note in the 4 December (or 20 November) 1943 photo that OAKLAND is showing a lot of "light color" along the waterline that likely isn't all due to bow wave and wake. Go to the 13 December 1943 at Pearl Harbor where OAKLAND can be seen with the same sort of pattern. Close exam of the image shows small boats/rafts along the side of the ship and it appears that primer has been applied to much of the worn area to be repainted.
Contrast this wear to what OAKLAND looked like on 29 October 1943 when she departed MINY. See the 4th image. In this photo it appears that a fresh coat of paint has been applied to the hull in the area of the knuckle from the waterline to the deck. So after only a little over one month of hard sailing, OAKLAND has seen her hull worn enough by the ocean due to the hull design to wear off the camo paint ABOVE the black boot strip. Similar wear to applied paint has been seen in other ATLANTA class cruiser photos and the high bow wave being deflected up to the knuckle can be seen on them when moving at high speed.