It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, as Harpoon entered service in 1977– yes, almost 50 years ago– but the new Harpoon Coastal Defense System (HCDS) was validated at its Developmental Test (DT-1) at Point Mugu Sea Range (PMSR) in July 2026, “validating the system’s ability to engage and neutralize maritime threats.”
Boeing Photo via DVIDS 260721-O-HP119-5272
During the event, the Harpoon missile successfully launched from land and engaged the target vessel in near-shore/littoral waters.
It is planned to ship these to Taiwan, which has a $2.3B program to field 100 HCDS launchers and 400 missiles– a pretty good way to keep the local littoral their local littoral.
It should also be noted that the background concept has been extensively validated over the years, with the Royal Danish Navy fielding two 8-missile batteries of Scania 113M/320 truck-mounted quad-packed Harpoons from 1988 to 2003.
The Danish Harpoon setup. Marinens Biblioteks digitale arkiv MAB-16884
Plus, Ukraine received 20 Harpoons in 2022 from donations by Denmark, the Netherlands, the U.S., UK, and Spain for use in ground-based launchers, though little has been seen of them. Like, literally. The Ukrainians conceal them inside cargo containers to avoid the drone ka-boom.
The Danes also loved to heavily camouflage their Harpoons, so you can be sure the Taiwanese will be sure to do the same.
But, why?
So why bother with a land-based trailerable Harpoon when the Marines already have the smaller Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction Systems (NMESIS) ground-based system which carries two Kongsberg Naval Strike Missiles?
A Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System launcher deploys into position aboard Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, Hawaii, Aug. 16, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Maj. Nick Mannweiler, released)
Well, throw weight for one. While the 13-foot/800-pound NSM is a newer and more streamlined missile, it only has a 264-pound warhead, while the 15-foot/1,500-pound Harpoon totes 500 pounds of boom and delivers it with more kinetic energy by virtue of mass and speed.
Yes, NSM has a longer published range of 100nm while the RGM-84L-4 Harpoon Block II has a published range of 75nm, but keep in mind those are public figures.
Of course, the 8-ton NMESIS with its two missiles is CH-53E/K (hoist) or C-130 (internal) aircraft compatible and built to operate in much more austere environments, ready to pop off an LCU, LSM, or LCAC onto a beach while the HCDS, based on the same HEMTT trailer as the Army’s THAAD, is more of a C-17/industrial-grade roadway kinda thing, as its weight is likely closer to 35 tons.
While HCDS is set to deliver to Taiwan to complement indigenous HF-2 and HF-3 anti-ship launchers, it might not be a bad idea for the USN to invest in a few batteries of these, for a just-in-case type of scenario. Put them in the reserves with two Marine Reserve Artillery Battalions, one staged on the East Coast, the other on the West.
Speaking of Marines and Harpoons, since you came this far, how about these great very recent shots of VMFA-232 “Red Devils” F-18C/Ds out of MCAS Iwakuni conducting an anti-ship exercise, complete with two AGM-84s under the wings along with a pair each of Sidewinders and AMRAAMS for emergency use.
Nice to see the classics.
A U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18D Hornet aircraft assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 232, Marine Aircraft Group 12, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, lands on Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Yamaguchi, Japan, during a harpoon exercise, Aug. 19, 2026. VMFA-232 stands ready to integrate and seize the strategic advantage to ensure stability in the region. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Alejandra Vega)
A U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18C Hornet aircraft with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 232, Marine Aircraft Group 12, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, flies off the coast of Japan, Aug, 19, 2026. U.S. Marines with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152 conduct aerial refueling operations in support of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 232, demonstrating the Marine Corps’ ability to sustain and generate combat airpower. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. David Getz)
We covered the story of the civilian-mariner-operated Homeland Security Cutter Ocean (the leased M/V Connor Bordelon) back in June.
A 257-foot/3,285 LT “Ultralight subsea intervention vessel” with a 60-ton AHC crane and a 55-foot helicopter platform, Ocean has the capacity to carry nearly 70,000 gallons of potable water, produce another 3,100 a day, and carry 122,000 gallons of transferable diesel. She also has a massive open deck that can carry a diverse mixture of CEUs, which can carry additional supplies.
Homeland Security Cutter-Ocean moored at U.S. Coast Guard Base Miami Beach, Florida, June 26, 2026. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Reese Hindmarsh)
Well, HSC Ocean is online and recently was used to conduct a replenishment at sea with the 270-foot diesel-powered Bear-class USCGC Forward (WMEC 911) in the Caribbean Sea, a historic first for the service.
Note the CEUs on HSC-Ocean’s deck
Nice to see a MK75 76mm OTO still in U.S. service
Of course, it was stationary in a near-zero sea state, but it was still an all-USCG RAS between two decent-sized non-USN/MSC vessels, which is saying something about how expeditionary warfare could look in the coming years in the West Pac or CENTCOM.
As noted by USCG Atlantic Area:
The HSC-Ocean initiative rapidly deploys leased commercial support vessel capabilities to deliver supplies, equipment, and personnel directly to our cutters underway. By integrating this commercial logistics technology, we keep our high-demand assets on station longer—enhancing our ability to save lives, strengthen border security, and ensure our crews are always ready to respond to maritime crises in the Caribbean and Western Hemisphere.
Check out these great new recruiting posters for the USCG, which show off current programs (MSRT, Blackfin MH-65Es with HITRON, etc.) in an early 1980s throwback style.
The last features a great image by Petty Officer 1st Class Tyler Robertson of Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Ilima Maiava, an aviation survival technician assigned to Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point in Kapolei, Hawaii, during training with a Barbers Point MH-65 Dolphin June 3, 2026. The station uses rescue watercraft to assist in rescue swimmer training by providing safety watch, mitigating the use of two helicopters.
It also serves as a good Segway to the new…
USCG Tactical Personal Watercraft (PWC) Program
Earlier this year, the Coast Guard stood up a program to train maritime LE folks on high-speed watercraft to intercept human smugglers and deter unlawful migration in shallow surf zones and restrictive environments where traditional pursuit boats cannot safely go.
Based in San Diego, the program excels in using jetskis to conduct shallow water pursuits in tight spaces, narrow channels, and shallow surf zones. The training is part of the Office of Rapid Response and Prototyping (CG-RAPTOR) Coast Guard program, which identifies, tests, and deploys new technologies, including tactical personal watercraft.
Coast Guard members conduct personal watercraft interdiction training at Coronado Beach, California, Jan. 15, 2026. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Roberto Nieves)
U.S. Coast Guard personnel demonstrate the use of jet skis during a training exercise in San Diego, California, Feb. 11, 2026. The training highlights the service’s implementation of new watercraft assets to enhance rapid response, interdiction, and maritime safety operations. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by PA2 Carmen Caver)
And yes, they use Nods and blue/green lights.
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Austin Ladner, a maritime enforcement specialist, maneuvers his personal watercraft during night operations training near San Diego on May 8, 2026. Ladner was one of the first qualified Coast Guard PWC operators and instructors; he initially trained with qualified U.S. Border Patrol personnel. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Gabriel Wisdom)
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Dugan, a maritime enforcement specialist, instructs his class of unqualified PWC operators during night operations training near San Diego on May 7, 2026. Dugan was one of the first qualified Coast Guard PWC operators and instructors; he initially trained with qualified U.S. Border Patrol personnel. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Gabriel Wisdom)
They can work directly alongside tactical pursuit boat crews as a combined unit and perform physically demanding interventions in dark, turbulent surf to stop smugglers from abandoning migrants in dangerous waters.
U.S. Coast Guard personal watercraft operators follow behind a Coast Guard boatcrew near Point Loma in San Diego on May 8, 2026. The unqualified PWC operators followed behind a boatcrew as part of a force package before simulating a pursuit by chasing their qualified instructors at high speeds. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Gabriel Wisdom)
Note the very sharp USCG insignia on the front cowling of the above image in the below inset:
260508-G-JO805-6513
The force was seen in New York Harbor during the recent Sail250 evolution as well.
Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Dorian Casey, assigned to the U.S. Coast Guard National Motor Lifeboat School in Ilwaco, Washington, operates a Coast Guard personal watercraft near the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) in New York Harbor during Sail 250, July 5, 2026. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Perry Shirzad)
You gotta admit, it sells itself as far as recruiting goes.
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Warship Wednesday 19 August 2026: Ward? Is that you?
Above we see the Edsall-class destroyer escort USS Finch (DER-328), carrying another tin can’s hull numbers and still outfitted with very real depth charges, getting ready to fire her forward 3″/50 Mark 34 mount for the cameras, circa 1969. You could say she is ready for her close up.
A WWII Atlantic Convoy veteran, Finch would later serve on the big screen in the Pacific Fleet’s first battle (as well as actual occupation duty in Chinese waters).
She also had a brief Korean War career– in Coast Guard service– recommissioned from mothballs some 75 years ago this week.
The Edsall class
A total of 85 Edsall-class destroyer escorts were cranked out in four different yards in the heyday of World War II rapid production with class leader USS Edsall (DE-129) laid down 2 July 1942 and last of class USS Holder commissioned 18 January 1944– in all some four score ships built in 19 months. The Arsenal of Democracy at work– building tin cans faster than the U-boats and Kamikazes could send them to Davy Jones.
The U.S. Navy destroyer escort USS Edsall (DE-129) underway near Ambrose Light just outside New York Harbor on 25 February 1945. The photo was taken by a blimp from Squadron ZP-12. Edsall is painted in Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D. U.S. Navy photo 80-G-306257
These 1,590-ton expendable escorts were based on their predecessors, the very successful Cannon-class boats but used an FMR type (Fairbanks-Morse reduction-geared diesel drive) propulsion suite whereas the only slightly less prolific Cannons used a DET (Diesel Electric Tandem) drive. Apples to oranges.
Armed with enough popguns (3×3″/50s, 2x40mm, 8x20mm) to keep aircraft and small craft at bay, they could plug a torpedo into a passing enemy cruiser from one of their trio of above-deck 21-inch tubes, or maul a submarine with any number of ASW weapons including depth charges and Hedgehogs. Too slow for active fleet operations (21 knots) they were designed for coastal patrol (could float in just 125 inches of seawater), sub-chasing, and convoy escorts.
This all brings us to…
Meet Finch
Our subject is only the second U.S. Navy warship to carry the name of the small bird, following a small minesweeper/auxiliary seaplane tender (AM-9) built for the Great War and lost off Corregidor in the Philippines in 1942.
USS Finch (AM-9) taken in the summer of 1934, off Tsingtao, China, while serving in the U.S. Asiatic Fleet. 80-G-1025944
Speaking of lost in 1942, LT(j.g.) Joseph Warren Finch, Jr.,USNR, gave his last measure aboard the destroyer USS Laffey (DD-459) off Guadalcanal, aged just 22, when his ship was sunk in an action that earned it the Presidential Unit Citation. A Northwestern grad, LT Finch had just 17 months in the colors and Laffey was his first ship. The next Finch would be dedicated to him.
Our subject, the USS Finch (DE-328) was one of 66 Edsall-class destroyer escorts block ordered from the Consolidated Steel Corp of Orange, Texas on 7 August 1942. She was laid down on 29 June 1943, with sister USS Kretchmer (DE-329) laid down beside her the next day.
The future USS USS Finch side-launched on 28 August 1943, by sponsored by Miss Grace Gushing, the grieving fiancée of the late Lt. Finch.
Our greyhound was commissioned 13 December 1943, her construction spanning just 168 days. Her plankowner crew was commanded by LCDR Albert Henry Nienau, USNR (University of Washington, NROTC).
In all, Consolidated Steel had been contracted to build 111 DEs during the war, of which only nine were canceled. The last delivered by the Texas Gulf Coast yard was USS Jack W. Wilke (DE-800) on 7 March 1944.
War
Finchwas assigned to Escort Division 57 for convoy duty and arrived at Curacao in the Dutch West Indies the same day Wilke was delivered. She spent the next three months there, escorting large tankers from the Caribbean to Casablanca and Algiers on two convoys (OT.13 and OT.14) and back (TO.13/TO.14).
It was during this time that LCDR Nienau got orders to take over the newly commissioned sistership, USS Dufilho (DE 423), which was headed to the Pacific. Her new skipper was LCDR Clement D. LeHardy, who formerly commanded the USS PC-483 (PC-483) and USS SC-499 (SC-499).
Returning stateside in June 1944, Finch then spent three weeks at the Fleet Sound School in Key West in ASW exercises, followed by a two week overhaul at Boston Navy Yard and two more weeks of gunnery drills in Casco Bay, Maine, preparing for invasion work in Europe.
USS Finch (DE-328) off the Boston Navy Yard, 14 July 1944. Courtesy of A.D. Baker III NH 91575
Same as above NH 91574
Same as above NH 91573
She then took part in the periphery of the August 1944 Dragoon Landings in Southern France, screening troopships carrying 13,597 GIs as part of Convoy UGF.13 from Hampton Roads passed Gibraltar for the invasion, returning to the East Coast with empties in Convoy GUF.13.
Then came more cross Atlantic convoy work for the rest of the war in Europe.
This included four outbound CU convoys and five returning UC Convoys:
Convoy CU.41 (Sep 1944: NYC – Liverpool)
Convoy UC.41A (Oct 1944: Liverpool – NYC)
Convoy UC.47A (Dec 1944: Liverpool – NYC)
Convoy CU.47 (Nov 1944: NYC – Liverpool)
Convoy UC.53B (Jan 1945: Liverpool – NYC)
Convoy CU.59 (Feb 1945: NYC – Liverpool)
Convoy UC.59A (Mar 1945: Liverpool – NYC)
Convoy CU.65 (Apr 1945: NYC – Liverpool)
Convoy UC.65B (Apr 1945: Liverpool – NYC)
USS Brister (DE-327), Unknown DE, USS Finch (DE-328), USS Kretchmer (DE-329), USS Thomas J. Gary (DE-326). Marseille, France V.E. Day. No 2007.34.13, USS Slater collection.
Headed to the Pacific
After VE Day, our proven little escort ship prepared for Pacific Fleet duty, and arrived at Pearl Harbor 12 July 1945. She then sailed on to Guam, where on 13 August she joined a jeep carrier task force (CarDiv 27, with baby flattops USS Block Island, Gilbert Island, Kula Gulf and Salerno Bay), which upon the cessation of hostilities was ordered into Leyte 17 August.
On VJ+3, sisters USS Kretchmer (DE-329) and Thomas J. Gary (DE-326) arrived in Keelung (Chilung or Jilong, Formosa, now Taiwan) to pick up American POWs, joined the following day, the USS Brister (DE-327) and Finch, the low-draft tin cans being the largest vessels able to pull alongside the damaged piers. Finch would take aboard at least 221 former prisoners of war, 171 of which were later transferred to Santee. She carried the remaining 50 to Manila herself.
In all, the four ships took away about 1,200 prisoners of war and transferred most them to Block Island (CVE-106) and Santee (CVE-29) to be sent to Manila to prepare for their return home.
Finch remained in the Far East until 1 April 1946, carrying mail and inspection teams, sinking floating mines (29 Sept ’45), surviving typhoons (October), supported the landing of occupation forces on Formosa, rescuing crashed aviators while on plane guard duty (LT Jack E. Perry USMCR, off Salerno Bay, 15 October), swapping out her second skipper (LeHardy) for her third (LCDR Eugene Taylor MacDonald), and spending lots of time steaming between Guam and China.
USS Finch (DE-328) at Whangpoo River, Shanghai, China, 11 February 1946. Courtesy of Richard L. Hawkins. NH 92325
She finally returned stateside, the long way round, via the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, completing a 10 month circumnavigation at Charleston, South Carolina on 29 May 1946.
Finch was decommissioned and placed in mothballs at Green Cove Springs, Florida on 4 October 1946, having made port calls at 63 harbors around the world in her 27 months of global service.
Finch did not earn any battle stars for her WWII service despite her 15 convoys, but was listed as eligible for the Occupation Service medal, with China service listed from 2-7 Sep 45, 12-22 Dec 45, and 1 Jan – 2 Apr 46.
Korean USCG service
With the dramatic surge in air and maritime traffic across some downright vacant stretches of the Pacific that came with the Korean War, the USCG was again tapped to man a growing series of Ocean Stations. Two had been formed after WWII and the Navy added another three in 1950, bringing the total to five.
These stations would serve both a meteorological purpose– with U.S. Weather Bureau personnel embarked– as well as serve as floating checkpoints for military and commercial maritime and air traffic and communication “relay” stations for aircraft on transoceanic flights crisscrossing the Pacific. Further, they provided an emergency ditch option for aircraft (a concept that had already been proved by the Bermuda Sky Queen rescue in 1947, which saw all 69 passengers and crew rescued by the cutter Bibb.)
As detailed by Scott Price in The Forgotten Service in the Forgotten War, these stations were no picnic, with the average cutter logging 4,000 miles and as many as 320 radar fixes while serving upwards of 700 hours on station.
Ocean station duty could be monotonous at one moment and terrifying the next, as the vessels rode out storms that made the saltiest sailors green. One crew member noted: “After twenty-one days of being slammed around by rough cold sea swells 20 to 50 feet high, and wild winds hitting gale force at times, within an ocean grid the size of a postage stamp, you can stand any kind of duty.”
A typical tour was composed of arriving at Midway Island for three weeks on SAR standby, three weeks on Ocean Station Victor midway between Japan and the Aleutian Islands, three weeks on SAR standby at Guam, two weeks “R and R” in Japan, three weeks on Ocean Station Sugar, three weeks on SAR standby Adak, Alaska, and then back to home port.
To stand post on these new ocean stations and backfill for other cutters detailed to the role, the Navy lent the USCG 12 mothballed Edsalls (Newell, Falgout, Lowe, Finch, Koiner, Foster, Ramsden, Rickey, Vance, Lansing, Durant, and Chambers), nine of which the service had originally operated during WWII.
To man these extra vessels and fill other wartime roles such as establishing new LORAN stations and pulling port security, the USCG almost doubled in size from just over 18,000 to 35,082 in 1952.
The conversion to Coast Guard service included a white paint scheme, an aft weather balloon shelter (they would have to launch three balloons a day in all sea states), and the fitting of a 31-foot self-bailing motor surfboat for rescues in heavy weather. The USCG designator “W” was added to the hull number, as was the number 100 so they wouldn’t be confused with Barnegat class AVPs in CG servcie.
Thus, USS Finch (DE-328) became USCGC Finch (WDE-428), under the command of CDR G. R. Boyce, Jr., USCG, on 24 August 1951.
USCG Finch (WDE 428) at Mare Island. She was in overhaul at the yard from 07 January to 16 April 1954. (U.S. Navy photo #DE 328 20362-3-54)
Stationed at Alameda, Finch served on all six Pacific Ocean Stations during the war: OS Uncle; 21 Jul-9 Aug 52, on OS Victor, on OS Sugar 30 Aug-18 Sep 52, on OS Queen 3 Nov-14 Dec 52; back on OS Uncle 15 Feb-8 Mar 53; on OS Nan 10-31 May 53. back to OS Victor 4-25 Aug 53; and finally on OS Sugar 4-25 Oct 53.
It was during this lonely service that, Finch, while taking a break from on Ocean Station Nan on SAR standby at Midway, unsuccessfully searched for “The Royal Hawaiian,” a downed Transocean Air Lines Flight 512 (N90806) DC-6A in July 1953.
Of the 12 DEs loaned to the Coast Guard during Korea, nine earned Korean Service Medals between 1951 and 1954, including our Finch:
USCGC Durant; WDE 489
USCGC Falgout; WDE 424
USCGC Finch; WDE 428
USCGC Forster; WDE 434
USCGC Koiner; WDE 431
USCGC Lowe; WDE 425
USCGC Newell; WDE 442
USCGC Ramsden; WDE 482
USCGC Richey; WDE 485
Finch was decommissioned the second time (the first from the USCG) on 23 April 1954, having served 32 months in CG white during the Korean era vs 27 with the Navy in WWII. She was handed over to the Navy at Mare Island Naval Shipyard.
DER days
The DER program filled an early gap in the continental air defense system by placing a string of ships as sea-based radar platforms to provide a distant early warning line to possible attack from the Soviets. The Pacific had up to 11 picket stations while the Atlantic had as many as nine. A dozen DEs became DERs through the addition of SPS-6 and SPS-8 air search radars to help man these DEW lines as the Atlantic Barrier became fully operational in 1956 and the Pacific Barrier (which Finch took part in) by 1958.
To make room for the extra topside weight of the big radars, they gave up most of their WWII armament, keeping only their Hedgehog ASW device and two Mark 34 3-inch guns that would eventually be fitted with aluminum and fiberglass weather shields.
DER conversion of Edsall (FMR) class ships reproduced from Peter Elliot’s American Destroyer Escorts of WWII
Detail of masts. Note the WWII AAA suite, one of the 3″ guns, and centerline 21-inch tubes have been landed
Finch’s conversion began at Mare Island on 1 October 1955 and 10 months later, on 17 August 1956, reclassified as DER 328, recommissioned.
17 August 1956: Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, Cal. – Commissioning ceremonies for USS Finch (DER 328) at Mare Island. She was converted to her DER configuration at the yard from 01 October 1955, to 12 October 1956.
(U.S. Navy photo #DER 328 30746-8-56)
Finch as DER
With her eight skipper (sixth Navy), LCDR James Keith Athow, in command, she was assigned to Escort Squadron 5 at Seattle.
The next two years consisted of quiet seaborne radar early warning duty, shifting to Pearl Harbor in September 1958, and to Treasure Island (San Francisco) in May 1960.
The 1960 Jane’s entry for her class:
Upon the disestablishment of the floating radar barriers in 1965, when the seaward extension of early warning lines was discontinued, Finch and her sisters would have probably been decommissioned but instead the Navy found another, new, mission for them.
Vietnam
Finch made five tours off the coast of Vietnam, in support of Operation Market Time, between January 1966 and October 1968, often working alongside her DER sisters. During these deployments, the ship’s primary mission was coastal interdiction, to prevent the seaborne infiltration of weapons and supplies to enemy forces. It was lonely stints of halting and searching junks, interspersed with UNREPs every few days.
She often served as a “mother ship” for up to a half dozen U.S. Navy Swift Boats (PCFs), providing logistical and personnel support for “brown water navy” operations in the Mekong River Delta.
A typical log entry from the period:
She also occasionally provided naval gunfire support ashore with her 3-inch guns. CONGA lists 16 gunfire support records for her, mostly bunched in July 1968 off Nin Thuan, and in October 1968 off Quang Ngai. During the former she was working in conjunction with the USCGC Point Young (WPB 82303).
From her October ’68 log:
Gearing-class destroyer USS Leary (DD-879) and Edsall-class destroyer escort USS Finch (DE-328) “during a Nam cruise.” Finch was a very old girl by that time….
Finch earned six campaign stars and a Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation for her tours in Southeast Asia.
Movie Star
Shifting port to Pearl Harbor on 15 January 1969, Finch, a three-war veteran, was tapped by the company filming Tora, Tora, Tora! to portray the Wickes-class Great War-era four-piper destroyer USS Ward (DD-139), which had famously sank a Japanese midget submarine just prior to the general attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December. This included picking up the old Ward’s hull numbers, although the two ships had little else in common other than size (1,600 t /306 feet oal vs 1,300 t/314 feet).
She had previously appeared in the 1960 film, The Wackiest Ship in the Army, moored outboard of sistership USS Durant (DE-389/WDE-489/DER-389) while at Pearl.
Finch’s role in Tora, Tora, Tora!, which was released in September 1970, came while she was in her fourth (and final) stint in mothballs.
She had been decommissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 3 October 1969 and placed in reserve where she swayed until September 1974 when, stricken seven months prior she was sold to the Levin Metals Corp. of San Jose for breaking.
Epilogue
All in all, Finch accumulated 18 years and 8 months in commission across her two Navy and one Coast Guard service stints, alternating with about 12 years in mothballs, which isn’t bad for an expendable war baby designed to survive a few convoys.
She had 18 skippers, including two who were USCG regulars. Among the most notable was her first, Al Nienau, who, as commander of the DE USS Dufilho, was one of the first rescue ships to reach the site of the USS Indianapolis survivors– ordering his men to turn on their 24-inch searchlights to facilitate the search in the inky darkness. He passed in 2004, aged 88, survived by at least “eight devoted grandchildren and eighteen loving great grandchildren.”
The Navy has not had a third USS Finch, which is a shame.
The USCG does have a cutter named Finch these days, though it recalls S2/c Florence Ebersole Smith Finch, USCGR, a WWII SPAR who clocked in on intelligence efforts in the occupied Philippines who was later captured and tortured by the Japanese.
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Florence Finch (WPC 1157), a 154-foot Fast Response Cutter (FRC) commissioned in 2024 and based in Astoria, Oregon, and Military Sealift Command submarine support vessel USNS Eagleview (T-AGSE 3) sail alongside the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Maine (SSBN 741) as it transits the Strait of Juan de Fuca, March 18, 2025. PA1 Steve Strohmaier
Thanks for reading!
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
***
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Sentinel (Webber) class Fast Response Cutters USCGC Douglas Denman (WPC-1149 and Forrest Rednour (WPC-1129) transit in formation during a photo exercise off the coast of San Diego, July 23, 2026. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Chris Sappey)
The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Douglas Denman (WPC 1149) returned to her homeport at Coast Guard Base Ketchikan on Saturday, following a 41-day patrol in the Eastern Pacific. Douglas Denman conducted 42 investigative boardings and queries in support of Operation Border Trident along the sea frontier south of San Diego.
That’s a lot of time underway on a 154-foot boat.
Speaking of which, we have an update on the former PATFORSWA flotilla of six 154s that fell back from Bahrain through the Straits of Malacca and appeared in Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines since the war with Iran made their old base and mission in the Persian Gulf untenable.
It has been confirmed by U.S. Undersecretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby earlier this week in a speech during a forum organized by the Stratbase Group in Makati City, PI, that four of the former PATFORSWA boats, now designated the Expeditionary Cutter Squadron (ECS), will be in that Westpac archipelago on a rotational basis. I’d imagine the other two FRCs will be in yard/workup periods in Guam, co-located with the three 154s currently based there.
The USCG is falling back on its FRCs to fill in the gaps left by the stalled $20 billion frigate-sized Offshore Patrol Cutter. The 66th of 77 planned FRCs was delivered in June, bound to be the fourth 154 sent to Guam, set to join the family in a couple of months.
Meanwhile, another sister is roaming off the coast of Panama, winning hearts and minds.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Robert Ward (WPC-1130) alongside Mexican, Ecuadorian, Colombian and Panamanian vessels conduct tactical signaling training during Panamax in the Pacific Ocean near Panama, Aug. 7, 2026. The exercise was designed to improve interoperability, sharpen skills, and demonstrate the ability to respond and deter threats to the region and its critical waterways. (Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class William Kirk)
Last week, the Canadian-led Operation Latitude and the U.S. Coast Guard-led Operation Frontier Sentinel overlapped in what was termed Operation Tundra Merlin in the Bering Sea.
It saw the U.S. Coast Guard Cutters Storis (WAGB 21), Fir (WLB 213), and Munro (WMSL 755) team up with the Royal Canadian Navy’s HMCS Max Bernays (AOPV 432) for a steaming evolution and photo ex conducted by an HC-130J out of Kodiak.
For reference, the red-hulled 13,000-ton Storis (formerly the polar tug Aiviq) is the country’s newest icebreaker, the black-hulled Fir is a 225-foot Juniper-class ocean-going buoy tender, and the white-hulled Munro is a 418-foot National Security Cutter. Meanwhile, Bernays is a 6,600-ton Harry DeWolf-class Arctic OPV.
The event was a five-day, 800-mile combined sail through the Bering Sea and Bering Strait to strengthen Arctic security, Jul. 20-24.
This came as the USCG monitored the Chinese research ship Xue Long, which transited north through the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and over the U.S. extended continental shelf in the Bering Sea with a declared destination of the Arctic, and the Xue Long 2, another China-flagged research vessel transiting to the Arctic.
(U.S. Coast Guard photos by Petty Officer 3rd Class Cameron Snell)
As noted by the USCG PAO:
The combined transit demonstrated seamless binational defense in the Arctic. This collaborative effort under Operation Tundra Merlin strengthened tactical integration and validated the collective ability to secure maritime approaches within the Alaskan theater of operations.
Sure, everyone knows about at least two of the five U.S. Army Airborne Divisions (11th, 13th, 17th, 82nd, and 101st) that stood up in World War II, along with several separate parachute infantry regiments and battalions (like the stand-alone segregated 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion).
Plus there were the three short-lived battalions of “Para-Marines” in the 1st Marine Parachute Regiment, and the Navy Parachute School (founded in 1924 no less!) at the NAS Lakehurst, which schooled thousands of riggers and both blimp and aircraft crews in the art.
Add to that the covert secret squirrel types of the OSS and their off-books school at Area A-2 in Virginia’s Prince William Forest Park, training to drop into occupied Europe and Asia.
But did you know the Coast Guard also stood up a specialist airborne unit during the war? No, we aren’t talking about aircrew training to “hit the silk”; we are speaking of the USCG’s Para-Rescues.
I can’t find a ton of information on the subject, but the background is that at least a few dozen Coasties underwent parachute and survival training in the U.S. Forest Service’s smokejumper program (which started in 1939) to be dropped into the harsh Alaskan wilderness for extreme search-and-rescue missions.
As any WWII buff knows, the Alaskan theatre went from being a backwater in June 1942 to being an active frontline, and the military buildup in the territory saw aircraft go missing almost every day. For instance, in the Aleutian campaign alone, the USAAF lost 225 aircraft, with only 1:6 of those in combat.
The National Archives and WWII Museum have some great images to help color the tale. All official captions:
Coast Guardsman M. L. Nelson, parachute rigger third class, Canton, Illinois, is one of this group of hardy, aerial trained to leap into the Alaskan wilderness to ‘bring-.” No date WWII Museum 2015.063.081
USCG Grumman JRF Goose. Original caption: (July 1945) The search is on — A twin-motored Coast Guard plane skims the rugged, ice-crusted mountains of Alaska in an effort to spot wreckage of a missing aircraft. Aboard the Coast Guard plane is a para-rescue squad that will drop into the desolate area when the survivors are sighted to administer first aid and guide the victims to safety. The para-rescuers are thoroughly familiar with the northern country and are equipped and trained to live for days in the icy wilderness. USCG Image 26-G-4397. National Archives Identifier 205592335
July 1945. Original caption: Men Against the Icy Wilderness — After jumping from a Coast Guard plane, these Coast Guard para-rescuers pit their hard-won experience of the north against a maze of snow, woods, and mountains as they search for plane-crash victims in a bleak section of Alaska. Laden with enough supplies to last for many days, the husky para-rescuers trudge through heavy snow banks to the spot where they located the wreckage while still in the plane. After administering first aid to survivors, the Coast Guardsmen will tackle the giant job of moving them to safety. USCG Image 26-G-4398. National Archives Identifier 205592344
July 1945. Original caption: Mercy Mission — This is how a fully equipped Coast Guard para-rescuer looks as he gets set to leap from a Coast Guard plane to carry aid to plane-crash or other victims swallowed by Alaska’s rugged expanse of mountains, timber and ice. Outfitted and trained to master the wilderness for days, husky para-rescuers provide food and medical care for survivors and move them to safety. USCG Image 26-G-4396. National Archives Identifier 205592341
July 1945. Original caption: Mountain-top Vigil — Search for plane-crash victims carries a Coast Guard para-rescuers to a vantage point atop a mountain towering over a snow-and wood-covered valley. Other mountain peaks punch through a thick sheet of fog, which teams with snow, ice, and woods in hindering the searching party. Dropped into the Alaska wilderness from a Coast Guard plane, the para-rescuer carries a heavy pack of emergency rations and other equipment to help care for survivors until they can be moved to safety. USCG Image 26-G-4399. National Archives Identifier 205592347
July 1945. Original caption: “That’s the Spot” — as a Coast Guard rescue plane hovers over snow-covered Alaska woodland, Coast Guard Paratrooper Bruce Johnstone (left), of Ketchikan, Alaska, points out the spot where he believes a missing plane has crashed to Lt. Comdr. Joseph F. McCue (center), of Washington, D.C., and Ensign James P. Gwynn, of Red Bank, N.H., Coast Guard pilots. Johnstone is a member of a para-rescue squad which will bail out to care for crash victims and move them to safety. The rugged para-rescuers are trained and equipped to exist for days in the bleak expanse of ice, snow, and woods. USCG Image 26-G-4393. National Archives Identifier 205592338
Today, no Coast Guard units are actively trained or equipped for tactical parachute insertion, which is probably a shame. Still, Coast Guard Aviation Survival Technicians (Rescue Swimmers) have to prove themselves in other ways that would make some airborne guys weak in the knees.
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Warship Wednesday 23 July 2026: Semper Laborantes
USCG Photo 26-G-07-26-56(13). National Archives Identifier 205592132
Above we see the Balsam (Iris “C”)-class armed ocean-going buoy tender USCG Hornbeam (WAGL-394) hard at work at the scene of one of the most infamous maritime disasters in modern history, some 70 years ago this week.
In the photo, the once-proud Italian liner Andrea Doria lists dangerously in over 200 fathoms of water off Nantucket, with two of her lifeboats alongside Hornbeam.
The Balsams
In 1916, the Revenue Cutter Service and Lifesaving Service were merged to form the Coast Guard, to which the Bureau of Lighthouses was added on 1 July 1939, and as such, all U.S. lighthouses, tenders, and lightships became USCG installations and ships.
The thing is, the lighthouse and buoy tender fleet was a hodgepodge of antiquated single-use vessels to which the Bureau had been looking to replace with a new series of 177-foot lighthouse tenders modeled after the USLHT Juniper, the last vessel designed by the Bureau.
Taking these plans, the Coast Guard made some changes and produced an 180-foot/950-ton single-screw steel-hulled ship that incorporated some new features that the USLHS never needed (an ice-strengthened bow, search and rescue equipment and mission, allowance for armament, etc. al).
The first of these, USCGC Cactus (WAGL-270), was appropriated for $782,381 on 20 Jan 1941 and laid down at Marine Iron & Shipbuilding Corporation, Duluth, Minnesota, on 31 March.
USCGC Basswood through the Straits of Mackinac- 12 May 1944, a good example of the “180s.” Note the 3″/50 behind her wheelhouse facing over the stern as well as her 20mm mounts. ASW weapons, firefighting gear, and buoy-tending equipment were also shoehorned into these ships. Further, as shown above, they could break light ice, a feature that was to serve the units headed to the Pacific well!
The 39 Balsams were built in three slightly different flights: A, Cactus (13); B, Mesquite (6), and C, Iris (20).
All ships of the three subclasses have the same general characteristics, but with slight differences (e.g., the “A/Cactus” class tenders may be differentiated from the other two classes of 180-foot tenders by their unique “A” frame main boom support forward and their large 30,000 gal fuel tanks that allowed an economical 17,000nm cruising range on their gentle diesel suite.)
Likewise, they were constructed at three yards, Marine Iron & Shipbuilding (6 Cactus, 5 Mesquite, 10 Iris), Zenith Dredge (7 Cactus, 10 Iris)– both in in Duluth, Michigan– and the USCG Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland (1 Mesquite), with the first hull laid down on 31 March 1941 and the final ship commissioned 22 November 1944, an impressive run.
The building process averaged 192,018 hours of labor per vessel.
Which brings us to…
Meet Hornbeam
Our subject was the only warship named after the American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana), a small hardwood tree.
Laid down as Yard No CG-152 at Marine and Iron Shipbuilding Corporation, Duluth, on 19 June 1943.
USCGC Hornbeam during construction at Duluth- 17 July 1943. USCG Photo
She hit the water in a side-launch on 14 August 1943 and was commissioned on 14 April 1944.
Launching of USCGC Hornbeam- 14 August 1943. USCG Photo
Our little tender was constructed in 300 days flat for a cost of $864,296. Only one C-series (Iris) Balsam class tender was constructed for cheaper (USCGC Sassafras) and that only barely so ($864,032).
LCDR Taylor accepts USCGC Hornbeam from the builders. USCG Photo
War!
Following a short workup, Hornbeam served on the Great Lakes, between April and July 1944.
USCGC Hornbeam- 15 June 1944. USCG Photo
She was used for general ice-breaking (in spring) and aids-to-navigation work (in summer) before heading to the East Coast via the Weiland Canal (the St. Lawrence didn’t open until 1959).
Arriving at Woods Hole, Massachusetts on 14 August 1944, Hornbeam was a First CG District asset used for coastal ASW patrol in addition to her buoy and marker work.
She was well equipped for the task, delivered with a WEA-2 sonar, two depth charge racks, two forward Mousetraps over the bow, and four Y-gun type depth charge throwers. For surface action, she had her amidships 3″/50 on a bandstand behind the stack, two 20m Oerlikon singles, and a SL-1 radar.
Official wartime caption: “The latest U.S. Coast Guard armed buoy tender is shown slogging into a head sea during an Atlantic storm in this oil painting by USCG Combat Artist Hunter Wood. This type carries heavy guns in case it runs upon a U-boat.” Released February 11, 1944. National Archives Identifier 205575897
It was during the war that she came to the assistance of the USCGC Nemesis (WPC-111) following the 165-foot patrol cutter’s collision with SS Felipe de Neve on New Year’s Day 1945.
To Black Hull Service
Post-war, the Balsams continued in service, albeit without having to keep an eye peeled for Zeroes and U-boats. This meant most of their ASW weapons were removed, and they received a more work-a-day black hull scheme rather than grey and camouflage.
Enlisted crew of USCGC Hornbeam on her quarterdeck,1952
For tenders stationed in more northern climes, like our Hornbeam, this meant summers working buoys and markers while being on call for search and rescue and LE missions and the winters breaking ice.
The class was used for any number of ancillary duties. For example, one member, Redbug, was lent to the MSTS for use as a light cargo ship (AKL) in the 1950s, running around remote Pacific bases. The white-hulled Evergreen (later classed as WAGO-295) served as the USCG’s only oceanographic vessel off and on from 1948 through 1982.
Jane’s 1954 entry for the class, noting 38 in USCG service, with Redbud in MSTS but not mentioning Evergreen.
Settling in her regular beat, Hornbeam became one of a series of cutters who had an alternate identity in the Republic of Nantucket, dubbed the RONC Par A Sec 4.
The practice came as noted by the USGC Historian’s Office:
The commanding officers or officers-in-charge of Coast Guard cutters that are assigned to or visit Nantucket play the “Ring Game” with the Nantucket Angler’s Club for “ownership” of the cutter. If the skipper loses, then the Nantucket Angler’s Club becomes the cutter’s owner. The skipper is entitled to decide the newly acquired cutter’s “RON” name.
She clocked in where needed.
Besides her regular work, she regularly ferried personnel and supplies to the five manned lightships marking the northeast coast. She served temporarily as the Nantucket Light Station when the regular light ships were unavailable, and helped them regain station when drifting.
With the huge Gloucester fishing fleet in her stomping grounds, it was often that our tender was called out in an emergency, such as when she came to the assistance of the trawler FV Flamingo near Pollock Rip on 17 Feb 1954. She then came to the aid of FV Shamos, aground at No Man’s Land, that September. In November 1955, she towed the disabled FV Mideay, then turned around just days later and towed the similarly disabled FV Ballard. In 1956, she escorted the distressed MV Chelsea to New Bedford.
That was just a warm-up for something much bigger.
Andrea Doria
The collision between the westbound 29,083-ton luxury liner Andrea Doria, out of Genoa, Italy, racing behind schedule at nearly 22 knots to New York, and the motorship Stockholm (12,165 GRT), steaming east at 18.5 knots out of New York headed for Gothenburg, on the late night of 25 July 1956 while in heavy fog off Nantucket, is very well documented.
Fatalities were light, all things considered. Five were killed on Stockholm, 46 on Andrea Doria. However, it set the stage for a heart-pounding all-hands rescue, with the liner flooding and listing sharply, rendering half her lifeboats immediately unusable.
Although cracked up, Stockholm ended up carrying 572 survivors (327 passengers and 245 crew members) from Andrea Doria, in addition to her own passengers and crew, to New York under her own steam.
The stately but aging 46,000-ton CGT liner, SS Île de France, rushed to the scene and, of 1,706 surviving passengers and crew of the Andrea Doria, about 753 were transferred aboard the Frenchman in six hours.
Other ships were there too.
The Munargo (United Fruit) Lines Liberty ship SS Cape Ann picked up 129 survivors.
The Hornbeam sortied out– along with the cutters Campbell, Evergreen, Fredrick Lee, Owasco, and Yakutat— and made it to the scene just before sunrise.
She took aboard the survivors of the last two lifeboats, composed of the final crew to escape the doomed liner. They had remained aboard working the pumps in vain hope she could be saved.
Hornbeam with the badly listing Andrea Doria in the foreground on the morning of 27 July 1956, some 55 miles off Nantucket. Note her eight portside lifeboats are still in their davits. USCG Photo 26-G-07-26-56(04), National Archives Identifier 205592110
Andrea Doria’s skipper, 58-year-old Capt. Piero Calamai, watched his proud vessel slip below the waves from the deck of Hornbeam. Reports range from 45 to 77, the number that Hornbeam took aboard. As the boats had a capacity of 58, either number seems possible.
Andrea Doria rolling. Likely taken from Hornbeam. Note she still has all of her portside lifeboats in their davits. USCG 26-G-07-26-56(17)
Andrea Doria down. Likely taken from Hornbeam. The cutter brought two lifeboats back to Woods Hole, and those that could not be salvaged were sunk by gunfire to prevent them from being shipping hazards. USCG 26-g-097-123-003
Hornbeam transferred her survivors to the larger and faster destroyer escort USS Edward H. Allen (DE-531)to land at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and brought the two large lifeboats from Andrea Doria to shore at Woods Hole.
For her assistance, the destroyer was officially thanked by the Italian Government and her commanding officer, LCDR Boyd Henry Hempen, USNR (OCS ‘43), was decorated with the Italian Legion of Merit.
Allen’s list of 77 Doria survivors, including Calamai, landed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard early on the 27th:
Hornbeam’s skipper, LT Roger F. Erdmann, joined LCDR Hempin of the USS Allen in a ceremony where 35 Navy and USCG personnel were decorated at the Italian Embassy in DC on 18 January 1957.
His Excellency Manlio Brassio [Brosio] [Brosio], Ambassador of Italy, decorates Lieutenant R. F. Erdmann, USCG, for assistance rendered the Italian ship, Andrea Doria, USCG Photo via NARA
Post-Doria
Hornbeam picked up her tackle and got back to work, yet continued to come in as a lifesaver in the clutch.
On 8-9 July 1957, she assisted the MV American Packer off Buzzards Bay
On 25 October 1957, she assisted MV Nicolos, which was aground at Hog Island
On 4 April 1958, she assisted MV Fort Felerman.
On 30 April 1958, she assisted FV Venture 1.
On 7 Aug 1958, she assisted following collision between MVs Graham and MT Gulf Oil in the East passage of Narragansett Bay.
On 29 January 1961, she assisted her sister cutter Spar, which was aground in Narragansett Bay.
USCGC Hornbeam off Nantucket in 1963. USCG Photo
In April 1965, she escorted the icebreaker USS Atka, which was taking on water off New Bedford.
In late November 1965, she assisted U.S. MVs American Pilot and Maume Sum following their collision west of the Cape Cod Canal
In January 1968, she freed the research ship Gosnold from ice near Woods Hole.
Still a warrior
She also undertook some genuine naval work in 1962, leaving her normal cruising grounds to participate in the shipping quarantine around Cuba.
Hornbeam shepherded several small (82 and 95 foot) patrol boats dispatched from New England that were involved in the operation that turned away several Soviet ships carrying offensive missiles intended for deployment in Cuba.
By this time, she carried an UNQ-1 sonar and SPN-11 or SPS-10 radar, and had ditched her Oerlikons for M2 .50 cals but still had her 3″/50 deck gun until at least 1967 when it was landed, leaving her just the .50s and her small arms locker.
Around this period, her unit patch included Semper Laborantes (Always Working), and for good reason.
Insignia patch of buoy tender assigned to First Coast Guard District, Boston. “Semper Laborantes, Aids to Navigation.” Description: Courtesy of Commander George Wildes, USCG, 1978. Catalog #: NH 88137-KN
Upgrades
In 1965, the service redesignated most large buoy tenders from WAGL (auxiliary lighthouse tender) to WLB (oceangoing buoy tender) to reflect the vessels’ evolving multi-mission capabilities– and the phasing out of manned light ships and light houses, with the latter declining from 670 in 1939 to just 158 by 1965.
The USCG kept these versatile 180-foot tenders in operation well past their prime. Of the 38 remaining Balsams, only 11 did not receive either a Major Renovation (MAJREN) in the 1970s (at which point they were in their 30s) and/or a Service Life Extension (SLEP) rebuild in the 1980-90s (at which point they were in their 40s and 50s).
Hornbeam was in the club of 12 that only ever got the 1970s MAJREN refit, picking up $17.5 million worth of work between 1 July 1976 and 29 Apr 1977 at the CG Yard.
Under the MAJREN program, vessels received new diesel engines while the main electrical motor and its control systems underwent a thorough overhaul. New electrical wiring and switchboards were installed, as were entirely new water piping and sewage handling systems. Each vessel received a bow thruster to improve its maneuverability in close quarters. Future crews benefited from the replacement and modernization of all furnishings in the living areas. Decreasing the size of the forward hold allowed the expansion of the living area itself. Fourteen 180s went through the MAJREN program. These repairs and improvements extended each vessel’s service life by an estimated ten to fifteen years
Following her MAJREN, Hornbeam shifted from Woods Hole, which she had called home for 32 years, and arrived at Cape May, New Jersey in early May 1977.
Post MAJREN and racing-stripe equipped USCGC Hornbeam underway on 15 February 1984. Note the ice accumulation amidships. USCG photo.
Based at Cape May, she was co-located with the service’s boot camp (TRACEN). This allowed her, whenever not on her regular ATON and SAR duties, to serve as a floating training bed for budding coasties and a host of assorted high-profile programs.
Yorktown, Virginia (Apr. 26 1999)–The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Hornbeam (WLB 394) secures the buoy chain after pulling a buoy out of the water as part of the JCOC demonstration at Reserve Training Center Yorktown. The Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC), sponsored each year by the Secretary of Defense, brings together 60 noted civilians from around the country–a broad cross-section of opinion leaders–and gives them a weeklong, intense orientation on the U.S. military. The program begins with high-level briefings at the Pentagon and then takes the participants to various installations across the country for “hands-on” experiences. USCG photo by PA1 Telfair Brown.
Still, with her ice-strengthened bow, she came in handy on ice patrol and in coastwise icebreaking even at her advanced age.
USCGC Hornbeam underway on International Ice Patrol in 1984
In January and February 1994, Hornbeam, “during a record cold spell,” spent seven weeks breaking ice and installing ice buoys in the Delaware Bay and Delaware River.
While in Cape May, her patch touted Marvin the Martian, noting the tender was “Doing the Impossible.”
End Game
Starting in 1972 with Redbud decommissioned and transferred to the Philippines, the Coast Guard began whittling down the 180s. Before the end of the decade, four further 180s, all from the earliest Cactus variants (Balsam, Cowslip, Woodbine, and Tupelo), were taken out of service and disposed of.
Three of the 180s were lost in accidents.
Cactus ran hard aground in 1971, and the damage was so extensive that the government decided to decommission the vessel rather than repair her– nearly 30 years into her service career.
In January 1980, USCGC Blackthorn collided with a commercial tanker in Tampa Bay, Florida, and capsized the buoy tender, taking 23 members of her crew to the bottom.
In December 1989, USCGC Mesquite grounded on a rock pinnacle jutting from the bottom of Lake Superior, which damaged her so severely that the USCG decided to decommission the old gal, and she was scuttled by a commercial salvage company in 1990.
By the 1980s, Evergreen, no longer needed with the service shuttering its oceanographic office, along with sisters USCGC Citrus (WLB-300) and Clover (WLB-292), were redesignated as Medium Endurance cutters (WMEC) to combat the rising drug trade and replace smaller 143-foot Sotoyomo-class fleet tugs that had been transferred from the Navy in the 1950s. These would later be replaced themselves in the early 1990s by much more effective 270-foot Bear-class cutters.
With the service moving to commission the new and much more capable 225-foot Juniper class of ocean-going buoy tenders, the writing was on the wall for the remaining 180s.
Hornbeam was decommissioned on 30 September 1999, capping a busy and oft-unrecognized 55-year career.
The laid-up tender was berthed first in Custis Bay, then in Baltimore after 2002, where she sat idle next to the Domino Sugar Factory.
The former USCGC Hornbeam (WLB-394), at Baltimore, MD, May 14, 2007.
In November 2007, the sugar factory had an explosion, and the ship was covered in black sugar soot residue.
The old girl was sold on the commercial market in January 2009 to Integrated Technologies & Systems, Ltd, and soon was floating around the Caribbean as the coaster M/V Rum Cay Grace (IMO 8660624).
It was in April 2010 that she was chartered to Volunteer Ministers, the outreach program for the Church of Scientology, to carry earthquake relief supplies (“including an ambulance, a pickup truck to be used as an ambulance, MREs, stoves and wood pellets, and wheelchairs, walkers and crutches”) from Miami to Haiti.
Scientology Volunteer Minister Ship, M/V Rum Cay Grace, (ex USCG Ship Hornbeam), arriving in Haiti, April 2010, bringing 165 tons of materials, food and other aids to the disaster-stricken country. Via Wiki Commons.
Left to languish in Haiti, the abandoned coaster was hijacked by “two old pirates” and a skeleton crew, and sailed to Panama in 2012, where she grounded and wrecked the following year, the end of her tale.
Hornbeam’s skipper during the Andrea Doria rescue, LT Roger F. Erdmann, USCG, retired as a captain. An exhibit honoring him is at the North Point Lighthouse outside of Milwaukee, where he was stationed from 1957 to 1961. He later commanded the famed 327-foot cutter Duane (WHEC-33) from 1969-1971 before ending his career in the 1st District in Boston. He passed in 1984, aged 65, and is buried in the Central Maine Veterans Cemetery in Augusta.
Two of Andrea Doria’s aluminum-hulled human-powered (Fleming geared) lifeboats, #1 and #13, survive, of which I believe the former was one of the two brought to Woods Hole by Hornbeam immediately after the disaster. No. 13 reportedly was found washed up in New York in 1981, having broken loose from her davits after the liner sank.
After the sinking of the Andrea Doria, Calamai, her final captain, retired. He had joined the Italian Navy in 1916 as an ensign, and had a solid 40 years of military and commercial maritime service under his belt. He is reported to have told one of his friends after the sinking, “Before I used to love the sea. Now I hate it.” When he died in 1972 at the age of 74, his last words were recorded as “Are all passengers safe?”
Wikipedia doesn’t even mention the Hornbeam in its entry on the infamous passenger liner. The USCG Historian’s Office long ago deleted her entry.
When it comes to her sisters, a few 180s survive in overseas service (Buttonwood, under a Dominican flag) while some others are in commercial or private hands as museum ships. One, Sundew, was at Hornbeam’s birthplace this week and still looks great.
To the crew of privately-owned former USCGC Sundew, departing Duluth this afternoon for the big USCG Festival in Grand Haven, Michigan, on July 24 – August 2. USCGC Spar (WLB-206), seen in the distance, will not be participating this year. Duluth, MN – July 20, 2026. Photo by David Schauer.
Thanks for reading!
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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With the Navy being patrol-craft-poor during OIF in the summer of 2002, Big Blue asked its poor uncle, the USCG, to temporarily shift a few 110-foot Island-class patrol boats to CENTCOM control in Bahrain.
Soon after, four East Coast-based Islands, USCGC Adak, Aquidneck, Baranof, and Wrangell, were carried via heavy lift vessel to the Persian Gulf and eventually became Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA) while four others, USCGC Bainbridge Island, Grand Isle, Knight Island, and Pea Island, were shifted to the Mediterranean as PATFORMED.
While the Med mission evaporated by 2004 due to Turkey not wanting to help support OIF and was stood down, those four cutters sent TDY to PATFORSWA never saw the U.S. again and were decommissioned there decades later, the force augmented to a full six-pack with the addition of Island-class sisters, USCGC Maui and Monomoy.
Persian Gulf (April 27, 2005) – Coast Guardsmen aboard U.S Coast Guard Cutter Monomoy (WPB 1326) wave good-bye to the guided missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 74) after the first underway fuel replenishment (UNREP) between a U.S. Navy cruiser and a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter. Antietam completed fuel replenishment with the Monomoy in about two hours and saved the 110-foot patrol boat a four-hour trip to the nearest refueling station. Antietam and Monomoy are conducting maritime security operations (MSO) in the Persian Gulf as part of Commander, Task Force Five Eight CTF-58). U.S. Navy photo by Journalist Seaman Joseph Ebalo (RELEASED)
The force was recently refreshed with six brand-new 154-foot Sentinel-class cutters: USCGC Charles Moulthrope, Robert Goldman, Glen Harris, Emlen Tunnell, John Scheuerman, and Clarence Sutphin Jr arriving, and the old Islands disposed of in-theatre.
220822-A-KS490-1182 STRAIT OF HORMUZ (Aug. 22, 2022) From the left, U.S. Coast Guard fast response cutters USCGC Glen Harris (WPC 1144), USCGC John Scheuerman (WPC 1146), USCGC Emlen Tunnell (WPC 1145) and USCGC Clarence Sutphin Jr. (WPC 1147) transit the Strait of Hormuz, Aug. 22. The cutters are forward-deployed to U.S. 5th Fleet to help ensure maritime security and stability across the Middle East. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Noah Martin)
Now, with the NWU-camo wearing 300-member force (six cutters, an extra crew, and 150 shoreside personnel) pulled out of the Gulf ever since February, as the 154s aren’t really built to operate against non-stop drone attacks, it seems the Navy finally threw in the towel on PATFORSWA’s mission and is shifting them to where they can win more hearts and minds, the Western Pacific.
The United States Coast Guard transitioned its Expeditionary Cutter Squadron (ECS), historically called Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA), to operate in the Western Pacific conducting maritime security operations and cooperative maritime activities with allies and partner nations in the region, in response to national security requirements.
The Expeditionary Cutter Squadron will be capable of performing missions as part of the U.S. Joint Force. The squadron is currently operating in the U.S. Pacific Command area of operations to protect the homeland and maritime approaches, including Guam and the Pacific Islands.
For more than 20 years, the Coast Guard has provided forward-deployed capabilities to support U.S. Central Command and U.S. Naval Forces Central Command from Bahrain. The unit has successfully executed maritime security, maritime interdiction, and maritime domain awareness missions throughout the Middle East.
“Coast Guard forces have always adapted to meet urgent national needs,” said Adm. Kevin Lunday, Commandant of the Coast Guard. “The Expeditionary Cutter Squadron enhances the Coast Guard’s ability to deploy our forces in support of Combatant Commanders and national security objectives. Our expeditionary cutter forces provide Combatant Commands with uniquely capable maritime assets, leveraging the Coast Guard’s military and law enforcement authorities to advance U.S. national security objectives in the Western Pacific and Western Hemisphere.”
Expeditionary Cutter Squadron forces will integrate with U.S. Combatant Commands to conduct exercises and maritime cooperative activities that enhance interoperability, strengthen strategic partnerships, and advance shared security objectives throughout the region. The transition of the Expeditionary Cutter Squadron reflects the Coast Guard’s intent to provide agile, capable, and responsive maritime forces. These forces will rapidly support national security objectives across a range of operational theaters while leveraging the Service’s unique authorities.
This explains open-source images of the entire PATFORSWA force seen shipping past Singapore in March.
WarshipCam -Official, March 29 at 4:49 PM. All six Bahrain-based USCG Sentinel-class cutters eastbound in the Singapore Straits – USCGC Charles Moulthrope (WPC-1141), USCGC Robert Goldman (WPC-1142), USCGC Glen Harris (WPC-1144), USCGC Emlen Tunnell (WPC-1145), USCGC John Scheuerman (WPC-1146) & USCGC Clarence Sutphin Jr. (WPC-1147) – March 2026 SRC: X-@StraitsSights
As well as Tunnnell and Moulthrope popping up in the Philippines a couple of weeks ago exercising with the locals in the South China Sea and during Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) in Thailand last week.
Philippine Coast Guard Teresa Magbanua-class multi-role response vessel BRP Melchora Aquino (MMRV 9702) and U.S. Coast Guard Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter USCGC Charles Moulthrope (WPC 1141) sail in formation during part of the Maritime Cooperative Activity (MCA) in the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone, June 27, 2026. The U.S. Navy routinely operates with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and partners and allies through MCAs to continually develop, exercise, and enhance multi-domain tactical interoperability to uphold peace and security in the region. (Courtesy photo by U.S. Coast Guard)
“The cutters are approved to operate from Singapore and Subic Bay in the Philippines through September [2026], with command and logistics handled out of Singapore and vessels rotating through Subic Bay,” the spokesperson said. “These operations reflect a long-standing commitment to a free and open Pacific and support a region where all nations, large and small, can operate freely, safely, and lawfully at sea.”
Are they going to remain there or fall back to Guam?
Of note, the service already has three 154s currently based in Guam, replacing two aging Island-class WPBs. They have been conducting some seriously long-legged (like 5,380nm) patrols as of late.
So does this mean there will be nine 154s in Guam?
Likely not, but you could see these new-to-the-WestPac boats soon spread out across allied Operation Blue Pacific nation partners that have little-to-no maritime forces, such as the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu– most of which have very real problems with incroachng Chinese influence, smuggling and illegal fising.
Winning hearts and minds in the WestPac littoral via white hulls with racing stripes.
With the recent visit to Baltimore, New York, and Boston, and victory in the Five Sisters Race off Cape Cod by the German training barque SSS Gorch Fock, repeating the windjammer’s Bicentennial Op Sail ’76 win, we would be remiss not to mention another German training ship that came by to bask in the 4th of July events back in ’86.
Here we see the training cruiser Deutschland (A 59) of the then-West German Navy passing during the International Naval Review celebrating the centennial of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor on 4 July 1986.
Note the myriad of small boat traffic! The USCG would never allow that today. CWO3 Montie Talbert III, DN-ST-87-02482, National Archives Identifier 6421663.
And another shot from the same day.
Crew members man the rail aboard the training cruiser (Ausbildungskreuzer) Deutschland (A 59) during the International Naval Review in New York. Photographed by Emmet Francois, DN-ST-87-01180. National Archives Identifier 6421149
The schulschiff, or schoolship, Deutschland (A59) was commonly referred to by West Germany’s Bundesmarine as a “training cruiser” throughout her 24-year Cold War-era career.
Just 5,700 tons at the max, she wasn’t much of a “cruiser” when compared to contemporary Atomic-era designs (she was ordered in 1958). The 453-foot vessel had no armor, was capable of just 22 knots at maximum speed, and her main battery consisted of four 4″/55 guns, making her more of a very slow gun-armed destroyer.
Deutschland (A59). Via 1967 Jane’s
Nonetheless, FGS Deutschland was the fifth “Deutschland” in 80 years of German naval history, following in the footsteps of a London-built central battery ironclad of the 1870s, a pre-dreadnought-era battlewagon, and the well-known WWII “pocket battleship.”
Unlike her forerunners, FGS Deutschland was a happy ship, carrying out three-month training cruises each summer for up to 250 naval cadets and chief petty officers, never seeing combat.
Check out this great 10-minute Cold War German film, covering a summer “School at Sea” during her 1984 cruise.
