The U.S. Army Mine Planter Service (AMPS) was an outgrowth of civilian crewed Army mine planter ships dating back to 1904. It was established on July 22, 1918 by War Department Bulletin 43 and placed the Mine Planter Service under the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps. Its purview was to install and maintain the mine fields that were part of the principal armament of U.S. coastal fortifications, including those at the approaches to the Panama Canal and defenses of Manila Bay in the Philippines.