Last week, NOAA announced that they had awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, based in Georgia, for two specialized C-130J Hercules to become the next generation of hurricane hunter aircraft.
Of course, this will probably lead to a bean counter in D.C. to either push the weather recon mission to NOAA altogether or absorb it into the 53rd WRS– with the latter likely.
The NOAA C-130s will replace the service’s two long-serving WP-3D Orions, nicknamed “Kermit” (N42RF) and “Miss Piggy” (N43RF), which have operated since the mid-1970s. The Navy, which helps support these old birds, is looking to divest its last P-3 platforms, VQ-1’s EP-3E Aries II, in 2025, while VXS-1 operates a handful of NP-3s on research roles, so the writing is on the walls.
“Adding these highly capable C-130J aircraft to our fleet ensures NOAA can continue to provide the public, decision-makers and researchers with accurate, timely and life-saving information about extreme weather events,” said Rear Adm. Chad Cary, director of the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps and NOAA Marine and Aviation Operations. “NOAA is using our more than 50 years of experience gathering data on hurricanes and other atmospheric phenomena to enhance the capabilities of these specialized new aircraft.”
An unusual sight in North Carolina’s Hurricane Helene devastated areas are volunteer mule teams.
With hundreds of miles of roads washed out and no guarantee of helicopter LZs in some places, folks like the Mountain Mule Packer Ranch are stepping up.
If you think that a few mule trains can’t help, remember how much baby formula, insulin, med packs, diapers, and other critical items can be crammed into those big packs. At least it’s a band-aid until the more large-scale operations get ramped up.
You may have missed a series of incidents and noteworthy news from the 17th Coast Guard District, Alaskan Command (ALCOM), Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region, and the Eleventh Air Force in the past couple of weeks.
USCG Bumps into Chinese Coast Guard, Russian Border Guard patrol in Bering Sea
An HC-130J Super Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak observes two Russian Border Guard ships and two Chinese Coast Guard ships approximately 440 miles southwest of St. Lawrence Island on Sept. 28, 2024. This marked the northernmost location where Chinese Coast Guard vessels have been observed by the U.S. Coast Guard. (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy photo)
1 October: JUNEAU, Alaska – The U.S. Coast Guard located four vessels from the Russian Border Guard and Chinese Coast Guard conducting a joint patrol in the Bering Sea, on Saturday.
While patrolling the maritime boundary between the United States and Russia on routine patrol in the Bering Sea, an HC-130J Super Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak observed two Russian Border Guard ships and two Chinese Coast Guard ships approximately 440 miles southwest of St. Lawrence Island.
The vessels were transiting in formation in a northeast direction, remaining approximately five miles inside the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone. This marked the northernmost location where Chinese Coast Guard vessels have been observed by the U.S. Coast Guard.
“This recent activity demonstrates the increased interest in the Arctic by our strategic competitors,” said Rear Adm. Megan Dean, commander of the 17th Coast Guard District. “The demand for Coast Guard services across the region continues to grow, requiring continuous investment in our capabilities to meet our strategic competitors’ presence and fulfill our statutory missions across an expanding operational area.”
The HC-130 aircrew operated under Operation Frontier Sentinel, an operation designed to meet presence with presence when strategic competitors operate in and around U.S. waters. The Coast Guard’s presence strengthens the international rules-based order and promotes the conduct of operations in a manner that follows international law and norms.
In its own statement, the CCG issued images of the 3,450-ton Zhaoyu-class patrol cutter Haijing 2303 and noted it was the first time the service has entered the Arctic Ocean– but keep in mind the 16,000-member force was only formed in 2013:
The 3,450-ton Zhaoyus, which are frequently seen in the South China Sea harassing Philipino ships, is armed with a H/PJ-26 76 mm naval gun, two 30mm guns, and two anti-aircraft machine guns.
This is the first time that Chinese Coast Guard ships have entered the Arctic Ocean, which effectively expanded the scope of the Coast Guard’s ocean-going navigation, comprehensively tested the Coast Guard ships’ ability to carry out missions in unfamiliar waters, and provided strong support for active participation in international and regional ocean governance.
A NORAD F-16 Fighting Falcon intercepts a Russian IL-38 in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone in September 2024 under Operation Noble Eagle. NORAD employs a layered defense network of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars, and fighter aircraft in seamless interoperability to detect and track aircraft and inform appropriate actions. NORAD remains ready to employ several response options in defense of North America.
There have been lots of incursions from Russian aircraft into the Alaska Air Defense Indication Zone (ADIZ) in the past few weeks.
Notable incidents include:
Two unspecified Russian military aircraft on Sept. 11.
Four aircraft including Tu-95 Bears escorted by Su-35s on Sept. 23.
Gen. Gregory Guillot, Commander of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, spoke on the latter event, stating:
“On Monday (Sept. 23), NORAD aircraft flew a safe and disciplined intercept of Russian military aircraft in the Alaskan ADIZ. The conduct of one Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all – not what you’d see in a professional air force.”
Healy Heads Back to the Arctic
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) transits with assist tugs through Elliott Bay near Seattle following its departure from Base Seattle, Oct. 1, 2024. The crew of the Healy are scheduled to resume their scientific mission that was cut short due to an onboard fire in late July. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Steve Strohmaier)
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20)departed Seattle on Tuesday, beginning her months-long Arctic deployment.
Healy’s earlier science mission was cut short due to a high-profile fire while underway in July. The icebreaker– the country’s only medium polar capable breaker– returned to Seattle in August for a thorough inspection and repairs but is now back on her mission.
While essentially unarmed other than the contents of her small arms locker, she at least has 16,000 tons of presence, a decent common suite, and a helicopter/UAV capability.
She will support NSF/UNOLS scientists and NOAA survey personnel conducting three distinct science missions:
The first mission supports the Arctic Port Access Route Study (PARS). During this mission, the cutter will perform bathymetric mapping in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The Coast Guard has initiated an Arctic PARS to analyze current vessel patterns, predict future vessel needs, and balance the needs of all waterway users by developing and recommending vessel routing measures for the Arctic. The Arctic PARS may lead to future rulemaking or international agreements that consider coastal communities, fishing, commercial traffic, military needs, resource development, wildlife presence and habit, tribal activities, and recreational uses.
For the second mission, Healy will embark 20 early career polar scientists and their mentors on an Arctic Chief Scientists Training Cruise sponsored by the National Science Foundation and University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System. These early career scientists will conduct multidisciplinary research, including mapping to fill critical bathymetric gaps and scientific sampling across various disciplines, in addition to developing skills in shipboard leadership, coordination, and execution.
The final mission of the deployment will support other science of opportunity to include sea floor mapping for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Coast Survey.
The U.S. Coast Guard spotted four Russian Navy warships on Sunday, 57 miles northwest of Point Hope, Alaska.
The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) encountered and shadowed four Russian Federation Navy (RFN) vessels 57 miles northwest of Point Hope, Alaska, on Sept. 15, 2024. The Russian Surface Action Group consisted of a Severodvinsk-class submarine, a Dolgorukiy-class submarine, a Steregushchiy–class Frigate, and a Seliva-class tug. Stratton patrolled under Operation Frontier Sentinel, a Coast Guard operation designed to meet presence with presence when strategic competitors operate in and around U.S. waters. (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy photo)
From USCG PAO:
While on a routine patrol in the Chukchi Sea, the crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) observed the RFN vessels transiting southeast along the Russian side of the Maritime Boundary Line (MBL).
The crew of the Stratton witnessed the RFN vessels cross the MBL into the U.S. Arctic and moved to observe the vessels. The Russian vessels were assessed to avoid sea ice on the Russian side of the MBL and operated according to international rules and customs as they transited approximately 30 miles into the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.
“We are actively patrolling our maritime border in the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and the Chukchi Sea, with our largest and most capable cutters and aircraft, to protect U.S. sovereign interests, U.S. fish stocks, and to promote international maritime norms,” said Rear Adm. Megan Dean, Commander of Coast Guard District Seventeen. “Coast Guard Cutter Stratton ensured there were no disruptions to U.S. interests.”
The Russian Surface Action Group consisted of a Severodvinsk-class submarine, a Dolgorukiy-class submarine, a Steregushchiy–class Frigate, and a Seliva-class tug.
The Stratton is patrolling under Operation Frontier Sentinel, designed to meet presence with presence when strategic competitors operate in and around U.S. waters. The Coast Guard’s presence strengthens the international rules-based order and promotes the conduct of operations in a manner that follows international law and norms.
Coast Guard Cutter Stratton is a 418-foot legend class national security cutter homeported in Alameda, Calif.
Meanwhile on Shemya Island…
The Russian naval group was spotted just after elements of the Alaska-based 11th Airborne Division surged a force projection task force to Shemya Island in the Western Aleutians.
The airmailed group included a HIMARS and AN/TPQ-53 (Q-53) Multi-Mission Radar, delivered via C-17 Globemaster.
HIMARS has a published range of 130 or so miles while the Q-53 is limited to closer to 30-40.
Still, it sends a message.
U.S. Army soldiers assigned to Radar Platoon, 2nd Battalion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 11th Airborne Division, orient a Q-53 Radar on Shemya Island, Alaska as part of a force projection operation, Sept. 13, 2024. The operation to the remote island in the North Pacific Ocean demonstrates the division’s ability to project power quickly and effectively, throughout the Indo-Pacific, assuring allies and partner nations in the region. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Spc. Brandon Vasquez)
U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to Alpha Battery, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment (Long Range Fires Battalion), 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, setup communication systems for the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) as part of the 11th Airborne Division’s force projection operation to Shemya Island, Alaska Sept. 12, 2024. The division’s ability to project power quickly and effectively assures allies and partner nations in the Indo-Pacific, and is the key to the strength of partnerships and relationships in the region. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Brandon Vasquez) (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Spc. Brandon Vasquez)
The Vought OS2U Kingfisher floatplane, with over 1,500 OS2U-3 delivered between August 1940 and December 1942, is and will forever be remembered as a U.S. Navy asset. After all, it flew during WWII from most of the fleet’s battleships and cruisers as well as from seaplane tenders resting inshore/near-shore and from coastal bases.
It went overseas as Lend Lease aid to Australia, Britain, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Russia, Uruguay, and others.
Beginning in March 1942 the USCG received the first of what would be 76 Kingfishers. Most (68) would be late-model OS2U-3s, but there would also be at least seven earlier OS2U-2s and a single early OS2N-1.
They were based, typically in two or four-aircraft dets, to several East and Gulf Coast CG Air Stations for coastal patrol.
OS2U-3; “‘Sea Birds’ With a Sting: Wings of the fighting U.S. Coast Guard, these ‘Sea Birds’ pack a sting–powerful depth charges–for enemy submarines molesting United Nations’ convoys. Photographed at an East Coast air base [Air Station Salem], the Coast Guard planes are about to take off on convoy patrol.” No date; Photo No. 224; photographer unknown; four OS2Us in line, on the tarmac in front of hangar at Coast Guard Air Station Salem; from ground level. USCG Historian’s Office
CGAS Biloxi Kingfisher in Back Bay with 325-pound depth charges on-water
“Tough Sea Bird” Kingfisher OS2U-3s flown by Coast Guard aviators over a coastal convoy. NARA 026-g-023-059-001
“The Eyes of Coast Guard,” 26 December 1942. OS2U Kingfishers on antisubmarine patrol, NARA 026-g-023-035-001
Their primary purpose was to provide the Coast Guard’s early anti-submarine efforts along the coastlines of the United States. Area patrols were flown and air cover for merchant convoys was provided. They carried two 325 aerial depth charges and could fly patrols of up to six hours.
None of the OS2Us were credited with sinking a submarine but they did make a number of attacks on submarines along the seaboards. There were 61 recorded attacks on enemy submarines made by Coast Guard aircraft. The preponderance of these was made in 1942 when there was a heavy concentration of German submarines off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
As seen in yesterday’s Warship Wednesday with the survivors of the heroic cutters Bedloe and Jackson, they also made and coordinated many rescues of survivors from torpedoed and lost ships.
The type was withdrawn from USCG service in October 1944.
The Coast Guard remembers the type well through its Art Program over the years.
“This image depicts artwork of an OS2U3 floatplane performing an aerial attack on a submarine. A U.S. Coast Guard amphibian plane sweeps down from the sky and scores a direct bomb hit on a surfaced Nazi U-boat.” Artwork by USCG artist Hunter Wood. NARA 205575756
Another of Hunter Wood’s USCG Kingfisher vs U-boat series paintings, NARA 205575761
“Vought Kingfisher, Circa 1942, OS2U-3,” William Ellsworth, watercolor, 11 x 15. U.S. Coast Guard Art Program Collection, Ob ID # 200120
“Achtung! Achtung!” by George Schoenberger: A Coast Guard OS2U-3 Kingfisher patrol, plane surprises a German U-boat on the surface off the Atlantic Coast during World War II. The submarine is waiting for stragglers from a convoy just over the horizon. U.S. Coast Guard Art Program Collection
“Where needed, we go,” An OS2U Kingfisher seaplane enters a storm on search patrol. William Ellsworth. Chinese ink, 15 x 11. U.S. Coast Guard Art Program 2005, Ob ID # 200510
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Warship Wednesday, 11 September 2024: You Have to Go Out…
USCG Photo #: 16079-A Photographer: J. N. Heuisy
Above we see a member of the 35 so-called “Buck and a Quarter” Active-class Coast Guard cutters rushed into completion to deal with bootleggers during Prohibition, the USCGC Jackson (WPC-142) as she appeared in 1927 in her original “rum-buster” haze gray configuration. Don’t let the bone in her teeth fool you, she is probably just making revolutions for 10 knots– her designed top speed.
These choppy little 125-foot gunboats were designed to serve as subchasers in times of war and Jackson, along with her sister Bedloe, did their part during the conflict, atop an unforgiving sea, to the bitter end.
The 125s
These cutters were intended for trailing the slow, booze-hauling “Blacks” mother ships of “Rum Row” along the outer line of patrol during Prohibition.
Constructed for $63,173 each, they originally had a pair of 6-cylinder 150hp Superior or Winton diesel engines that allowed them a stately speed of 10 knots, max, but allowed a 4,000 nm, theoretically Atlantic-crossing range– an outstanding benefit for such a small craft.
While slow, this was deemed at first adequate as most of the Blacks were cheapy acquired and nearly condemned old coasters and fishing schooners salvaged from backwater ports around New England and the Maritimes for their shady last hurrah.
For armament, they carried a single 3″/23 cal deck gun for warning shots– dated even for the 1920s– a Lewis gun or two for serious use, and a small arms locker that included everything from Tommy guns to .38s. In a time of conflict, they could tote listening gear and depth charge racks left over from the Great War, but we’ll get to that later.
Taking advantage of one big contract issued on 26 May 1926, the class were all built within 12 months by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, New Jersey (although often listed as “American Brown Boveri” due to their owners at the time, the Swiss Brown Boveri corporation).
The class was named in honor of former historic cutters from the Coast Guard and its preceding Lighthouse Service, Revenue Marine, and Revenue Cutter Services.
Meet Bedloe
Commissioned 25 July 1927 as USCGC Antietam (WPC-128) after a circa 1864 Revenue Cutter Service centerboard schooner of the same name that was a nod to the pivotal Maryland Civil War battle, this hardy 125-footer was first stationed in Boston under the 1st CG District where she served for eight years, accomplishing her hallmark law enforcement and SAR duties but also breaking light ice when needed.
The USCG sent no less than 11 of the first 125s to Boston, where they were desperately needed to parol the New England coastline. Besides Antietam, they included USCGC Active (WPC-125), Agassiz (WPC-126), Alert (WPC-127), Bonham (WPC-129), Dix (WPC-136), Faunce (WPC-138), Fredrick Lee (WPC-139), Harriet Lane (WPC-141), General Greene (WPC-140), and Jackson (WPC-142).
These new cutters were based at the Charleston Navy Yard and arrived in a haze-gray livery, built to take the “Rum War” to the bootleggers.
Five 125-foot cutters– likley including Antietam– at Charleston Navy Yard Boston late 1920s. Boston Public Library Leslie Jones Collection.
Once the Volstead Act was repealed, the 125s got a more regal peacetime USCG white and buff appearance.
Cutter Antietam in the Boston area, likely during a summer regatta around 1930. Boston Public Library Leslie Jones Collection 08_06_004565.
USCGC Antietam, later Bedloe in 1930, likely in the Boston area. USCG Photo.
With cutters needed on the Great Lakes and the downturn in cutter tempo that accompanied the end of Prohibition, Antietam transferred to Milwaukee in May 1935, a station that typically meant a winter lay-up once the lakes froze over.
Of note, on 1 December 1937, Antietam was used as a dive platform for a famous deep dive in Lake Michigan by Max Gene Nohl that set the world’s then-deep dive record of 420 feet. Nohl, using a self-contained suit with a heliox (helium/oxygen) breathing mixture pioneered by what would become DESCO, had earlier made history from the cutter’s deck the previous April when she hosted the first live underwater broadcast to a national audience by WTMJ over the NBC-Blue network.
On 10 April 1937, Max Nohl (shown in the dive suit) along with John Craig made a dive on the shipwreck Norland to perform another early test of the newly designed diving suit in conjunction with testing the helium-oxygen mixture that Dr. End and Max had been working on. The dive took place off the deck of the Coast Guard cutter Antietam (note the “A” on her whaler) about five miles out from Milwaukee’s breakwater, via the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Between 1939 and 1940, most of the 125s in the Coast Guard’s inventory had their often cranky original diesels replaced by new General Motors 268-As. Rated for 600 hp, they were capable of breaking 14 knots (vs the designed 10) in still seas. However, the radius dropped down to 2,500nm @ 12 knots and 3,500 @ 8.
Then came WWII in Europe and the need for the Neutrality Patrol. This was long before FDR’s 1 November 1941 Executive Order 8929 that transferred the Coast Guard to the Navy Department.
With the Navy short on hulls, Antietam was pulled from her Wisconsin home and ordered to Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1940. There, her armament was beefed up at the Tietjen & Lang yard to include stern depth charge racks and the capacity to carry 10 cans. To acknowledge the upgrade, in February 1942, the 125s were redesignated from WPC (Coast Guard patrol craft) to WSC (Coast Guard sub chaser.)
Assigned to the EASTSEAFRON (Eastern Sea Frontier), Antietam was stationed out of Stapleton, Staten Island, where she saw service as a coastwise convoy escort along the eastern seaboard. It was in this duty that she proved a godsend to those souls on the sea and was involved in several rescues including that of the unescorted Gulf Oil tanker SS Gulftrade (6,776 tons) after she had been sunk by U-588 (Victor Vogel). Antietam pulled 16 Gulftrade survivors out of the ocean on 9 March 1942.
It was around this period that our cutter would be further up-armed with a pair of 20mm/70 Mk 4 Oerlikon AAA guns, a Mousetrap Mk 20 ASWRL, swap out their goofy little 3″/23 for a 40mm Bofors single Mk 1, and pick up a SO-model surface search radar set. So equipped, they had become subchasers in reality rather than just names.
The 125-foot Coast Guard Cutter Cuyahoga ready to depart from the Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Md., Feb. 11, 1945. U.S. Coast Guard photo. Note her 40mm Bofors crowding her bow. By mid-war Antietam and her sisters had a similar appearance.
As the Navy was looking to use the name “Antietam” for a new Essex-class fleet carrier (CV-36) that was under construction at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, our patrol boat was unceremoniously renamed USCGC Bedloe on 1 June 1943. Shortly after, she was dispatched to Navy Section Base (NSB) Morehead City, North Carolina, to join the Chesapeake Escort Group (T.G. 02.5).
The AOR of TG 02.5, as seen on the cover of its war diary
Morehead City served as the link in the coastal escort chain between Norfolk and Charleston and its vessels– a mix of auxiliary motor minesweepers (YMS), miscellaneous Yard Patrol craft (YPs), random patrol yachts such as USS Cymophane (PYc-26), a handful of 110-foot patrol boats (PC) and subchasers (SC), augmented by a dozen Coast Guard 83 footer “Jeeps of the Deep”— was a motley assortment to say the least. A couple of 97-foot converted trawler hulled coastal minesweepers, USS Kestrel (AMc-5) and USS Advance (AMc-63) puttered around on sweep duties just in case the Germans laid a few eggs.
Antietam/Bedloe, and her sister Jackson, were about the brawniest vessels the Morehead City group had at its disposal.
USCGC Bedloe, probably 1944. Note her stern depth charges and SO radar set. USCG Photo #: A-8125.
Meet Jackson
Repeating the name of one of the 13 circa 1830s Morris-Taney class 73-foot topsail schooners ordered for the service USCGC Jackson (WPC-142) commissioned 14 March 1927. Like her sister Antietam/Bedloe, she was immediately assigned to Boston.
Four 125-foot cutters at Charleston Navy Yard Boston late 1920s including, from the outside, USCGC Fredrick Lee, General Green, and Jackson. Boston Public Library Leslie Jones Collection.
Like Antietam, Jackson painted over her haze grey for a more Coastie white and buff scheme post-Prohibition.
A black and white photograph of the Coast Guard Cutter Jackson passing through the Cape Cod Canal on the day of the Canal Bridge Opening, August 15, 1935. Nina Heald Webber Cape Cod Canal collection. MS028.04.022.005
Reassigned in the late 1930s to U.S. Coast Guard Stations Rochester and Greenport, New York in the Great Lakes, Neutrality Patrol work saw her armed and assigned to Norfolk on 1 July 1941 for anti-submarine patrol and coastal escort duty.
This typically boiled down to escorting one or two merchies at a time along cleared (for mines) routes at speeds hovering around 10 knots. Some faster vessels took their chances and ran the coastline on their own which didn’t always work.
One such instance was the unescorted and unarmed tanker SS Tiger (5,992 tons) which on April Fool’s Day 1942 caught a torpedo from U-754 (Hans Oestermann) just as she reduced speed and signaled with blinkers to pick up a pilot off Cape Henry, Virginia. Her complement taken off by the Yippee boat USS YP-52, Jackson and the tug Relief brought a salvage crew by the listing tanker to attempt to tow it to Norfolk but the hulk was uncooperative and sank in the Chesapeake.
On 20 July 1944, Jackson was made part of Task Group 02.5, joining sister Antietam/Bedloe.
Then came…
SS George Ade
An EC2-S-C1 break bulk cargo carrier, SS George Ade (7176 tons) was built by Florida-based J. A. Jones in 1944. Based out of Panama City, while carrying a mixed load of cotton, steel, and machinery from Mobile to New York, the brand new Liberty ship was unescorted (!) and steaming on a non-evasive course (!!) off Cape Hatteras when she came across by the Schnorchel-equipped Type IXC U-518 (Oblt. Hans-Werner Offermann) on 12 September 1944.
Hit by a Gnat that destroyed her rudder and flooded the shaft alley, she was effectively dead in the water. Her Naval Armed Guard fired a few rounds in U-518’s direction, keeping the boat away but she was a sitting duck.
The Great Atlantic Hurricane of September 1944
Four days before George Ade was torpedoed, Commander Gulf Sea Frontier issued an advisory that a tropical hurricane centered east of the Leeward Islands was moving northwest at 10 knots. Aircraft recon on 11 September found a system with a radius of 150 miles and warnings “This is a large and severe storm” were flashed.
It would grow into what we today would deem a Category-4 monster.
Guantanamo to New York Convoy GN-156 on 12 September came across the storm’s periphery and logged 47-knot winds, later upping to over 65 which scattered the convoy although no casualties were reported.
On the night of 12 September, the refrigerated stores ship USS Hyades (AF-28), escorted by the Somers-class destroyer USS Warrington (DD-383) only two days out of Norfolk bound for Trinidad, encountered the hurricane between West Palm Beach and the Bahamas as the storm moved North.
USS Warrington (DD-383), photographed by Navy Blimp ZP-12, 9 August 1944. Just five weeks after this image was snapped, the destroyer would be at the bottom of the Atlantic. 80-G-282673
As noted by DANFS:
Later that evening, the storm forced the destroyer to heave to while Hyades continued on her way alone. Keeping wind and sea on her port bow, Warrington rode relatively well through most of the night. Wind and seas, however, continued to build during the early morning hours of the 13th. Warrington began to lose headway and, as a result, started to ship water through the vents to her engineering spaces.
The water rushing into her vents caused a loss of electrical power which set off a chain reaction. Her main engines lost power, and her steering engine and mechanism went out. She wallowed there in the trough of the swells-continuing to ship water. She regained headway briefly and turned upwind, while her radiomen desperately, but fruitlessly, tried to raise Hyades. Finally, she resorted to a plain-language distress call to any ship or shore station. By noon on the 13th, it was apparent that Warrington’s crewmen could not win the struggle to save their ship, and the order went out to prepare to abandon ship. By 1250, her crew had left Warrington; and she went down almost immediately.
A prolonged search by Hyades, Frost (DE-144), Huse (DE-145), Inch (DE-146), Snowden (DE-246), Swasey (DE-248), Woodson (DE-359), Johnnie Hutchins (DE-360), ATR-9, and ATR-62 rescued only 73 men of the destroyer’s 321 member watch bill– and these were spread out for 98 miles from the destroyer’s last position!
Coordinated by the jeep carrier USS Croatan, whose escorting tin cans did a lot of the work in pulling men from the water, the group commander signaled on 14 September, “Sharks very active. Am making every effort to locate and recover living before dark as those so far rescued are very weak.”
Further north, New York to Guantanamo Convoy NG-458, with 15 tankers and 17 freighters escorted by two frigates and a few PCs and YMSs, encountered the unnamed hurricane for 18 hours across the 12th and 13th, and reported: “winds estimated 130-150 knots and seas 50-60 feet.” The COMEASTSEAFRON War Diary for the period notes, “It was impossible for a person to remain exposed to the wind because the tremendous force of driving spray was unbearably painful. Visibility was nil, and all ships and escorts were widely scattered.”
One man, LT North Oberlin of USS PC-1210, was swept overboard “and undoubtedly drowned.”
Another small escort, PC-1217, had her bulkhead plates buckled and several compartments flooded– including her radio shack. Her communications knocked out and long missing from the rest of the convoy, she limped into Mayport alone on the 16th– self-resurrecting from among the missing thought dead.
One ship that never arrived in port was the 136-foot baby minesweeper USS YMS-409, which foundered and sank, taking her entire crew of 33 to the bottom.
Photo from the collection of LT(jg) Bernard Alexander Kenner who served on board YMS-409. He departed a few days before the ship left port and sank off Cape Hatteras. He kept this photo for over 61 years along with a list of his former crew mates who perished, via Navsource.
Further up the coast, the USCG’s Vineyard Sound lightship (LS-73), anchored before the shallows off Cuttyhunk, Massachusetts, was also claimed by the storm, taking her entire crew.
The 123-foot United States Lightvessel 73 (LV 73 / WAL-503) on her Vineyard Sound station where she served from 1924 through 1944. On 14 September 1944, she was carried off station during a hurricane and sank with the loss of all hands. USCG photo
…Back at the George Ade
Late on the afternoon of 12 September, some 14 hours after the attack by U-518 that left her dead in the water, the salvage ship USS Escape (ARS 6), escorted by our previously mentioned Bedloe and Jackson, arrived and took her in tow.
Struggling against the ever-increasing seas with the hurricane inbound, Ade and Escape hove to on 14 September some 12 miles off Bodie Island, North Carolina in 13 fathoms of water, where they reported 100-knot winds and 50-foot seas. Ade suffered one of her anchors, two lifeboats, and four rafts carried away.
However, the tow’s escorts, Bedloe and Jackson, had vanished.
At around 1030 on 14 September, Jackson was struck hard by seas while laid her over her port side, a roll from which the 125-footer could not recover. Given the order to abandon ship, her complement too to four life rafts, which all swamped/flipped and sank within 30 minutes. This left her crew afloat and on their own…in a hurricane.
Bedloe, meanwhile, was entirely unaware of the disaster with her nearby sister due to the strong seas and nil visibility. At around 1300 local, she suffered three severe rolls to port, the last of which left her that way until she submerged three minutes later. Of her crew, 29 were able to abandon ship on three life rafts.
Rescue
With Bedloe and Jackson failing to report to shore following the storm, and George Ade and Escape confirming their separation from the escorts, the 5th Naval District launched an air search beginning with four Coast Guard-operated OS2U3 Kinfishers from CGAS Elizabeth City taking to the air at first light on the morning of the 16th. At this point, the survivors of Bedloe and Jackson had been on the sea for two days.
The first group of men, the three waterlogged rafts from Bedloe with but just 21 remaining men, were spotted 10 miles off Cape Hatteras. Three of the Kingfishers landed and taxied to the rafts to give aid to the injured.
Pilots and radio operators knocked off their shoes and then dove into the water to help pull semi-conscious men onto the wings of the bobbing planes.
Eight of the Bedloe’s crew had perished over the night of the 15th from a mixture of injuries and exposure. Two more would die shortly after rescue.
A Navy blimp dropped emergency rations.
Navy airship hovers over two OS2Us and a CG launch with picked-up survivors of the USCGC Bedloe, 16 September. USN ZP24-2906
With the Kingfishers on hand as a guide, a Coast Guard 30-foot motor lifeboat, CG-30340, from the Oregon Inlet Lifeboat Station, 15 miles away, raced to the scene and brought the survivors ashore.
BM1 William W. McCreedy from the Oregon inlet Lifeboat Station, who assisted in the rescue of the survivors from the Bedloe said the first thing he saw was a man doubled up in a small raft, his eyes resembling “a couple of blue dots in a beefsteak.”
“He flashed a beautiful smile that couldn’t be missed,” McCreedy continued. “I felt I had looked at something a man sees once in a lifetime — sort of thought I had come to the edge of heaven. Then, as though his last will to fight had been lost when he saw us, he jumped into the water. The radioman grabbed him and held him in the raft. I went overboard to help and the three of us dragged the raft down. The unconscious man’s foot was twisted in the lines, but I cut him free and we put him in the boat.” Just before reaching shore, the man reached, stroked McCreedy’s face and mumbled “We made it.” Then he died.
Once back at Oregon Inlet, a Coast Guard PBM with a doctor aboard flew the men to Norfolk for treatment.
Original caption: “Coast Guard survivors of hurricane disaster recover in Norfolk hospital: eight of the 12 survivors of the hurricane sinking of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bedloe are shown recovering in the naval hospital at Norfolk, Virginia. They were rescued by Coast Guard air and seacraft after clinging to life rafts for more than 50 hours in shark-invested [sic] Waters 15 miles off the Virginia coast. All suffered from shock and exposure, as well as lashing by the stingers of ‘Portuguese men-of-war.’ the cutter Bedloe was sunk at the height of the hurricane on Thursday, about the time that the Coast Guard Cutter Jackson went down in the same area. In all, 19 were rescued and 49 officers and enlisted men are missing in the twin disaster. In this group, left to right, are Coast Guardsmen Jerry VanDerPuy, seaman, first class, of. . . .Sheboygan, Wisconsin; John Kissinger, soundman, third class, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Robert Greeno, seaman first class, of Monroe, Michigan; Robert Hearst, seaman first class, of Latonia, Kentucky; Joseph Martzen, soundman second class, of. . . .McAdoo, Pennsylvania.; Michael J. Cusono, radioman third class, of Schenectady, NY, Pearcy C. Poole, chief radioman of Lakewood, N.J. and Joseph Ondrovik, coxswain of Bellville, Michigan.” Date: 14 September 1944. USCG Photo 1248 Photographer: “Kendall”, U.S. Coast Guard photo.
The search for the floating Jackson survivors continued into the night of the 16th, with Navy Blimp K-20 following up on a report from a Navy SB2C Helldiver that two groups of men were sighted in the water 18 miles offshore. USS Inflict (AM-251), on her shakedown cruise between Charleston and Norfolk, joined the rescue.
Aided by dropped water lights from the aircraft, whaleboats from the minesweeper recovered 12 men who had been adrift for over 60 hours, hounded by sharks and Portuguese men-of-war. Of these, the ship’s pharmacist’s mate found one man had a gangrene infection, another appendicitis, a third a broken leg, and a fourth a dislocated shoulder and cracked ribs, while all suffered necrotic salt water ulcers, hypothermia, and general fatigue.
Pushing her twin ALCO diesels to their max to break 14 knots, Inflict made Norfolk on the morning of the 17th and her charges were rushed to the Naval Hospital.
Later that day, USS PC-1245 recovered the floating bodies of four from Bedloe.
The air and naval search for the cutters’ lost members continued until the evening of the 18th. No less than 116 planes and six blimps had been aloft in the search.
In all, 22 men from Bedloe are still marked “missing” while another four who were recovered died. Of Jackson’s crew, which spent more time in the sea– almost all of it treading water– 21 are still somewhere under the waves.
This bill from Poseidon was paid, along with the 251 souls from the destroyer Warrington, LT Oberlin of PC-1210, the 33 minemen aboard YMS-409, and a dozen lightkeepers on LV-73.
Epilogue
Separate courts of inquiry conducted by ComFive and COMEASTSEAFRON inquired into the loss of Bedloe and Jackson:
Coast Guard Historian William H. Thiesen suspected Jackson succumbed to waves pushed ahead of the storm’s eyewall, while Bedloe was sunk by rogue waves formed on the backside of the eyewall, writing in a 2019 Proceedings article that, “It is possible that both cutters were victims of a phenomenon called the ‘three sisters,’ a series of rogue waves that travel in threes and are large enough to be tracked by radar.”
Post-war, the Coast Guard would use both cutters’ names a third time, with USCGC Jackson (WPC-120), ex-USS PCE(R)-858, and USCGC Bedloe (WPC-121), ex-USS PCE(R)-860. In typical Coast Guard fashion, “Both of the new cutters remained berthed at Curtis Bay, Maryland due to a lack of personnel,” and were later decommissioned and sold in 1947.
Today, Jackson rests, broken in two, southeast of Nags Head in 77 feet of water in NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. Navy EOD visited the site in the 1990s to remove ordnance and depth charges.
The USCGC Maple in 2022 hosted a Coast Guard chaplain, divers, and an underwater archaeologist for four days while the sites were visited, mapped, and honored.
The Coast Guard Art Program has also saluted the cutters.
“The Fate of Cutters Jackson and Bedloe,” Louis Barberis, watercolor, 16 x 23. US Coast Guard Art Program 2005 Collection, Ob ID # 200503
As for the SS George Ade, the Liberty ship made it back to Norfolk where she was drydocked and repaired, returning to service on 18 December 1944.
Ade’s shot away rudder and damaged screw/shaft following the hit from U-518 and surviving a hurricane at sea immediately after. Photos: MARAD.
Post-war, Ade was transferred to the National Defense Reserve Fleet, in Mobile, Alabama, and, after 20 years in mothballs, was sold for scrap in 1967.
As for U-518, she was sunk on 22 April 1945 in the North Atlantic north-west of the Azores by depth charges from the destroyer escorts USS Carter (DE 112) and USS Neal A. Scott (DE 769), with all hands lost including Oblt. Hans-Werner Offermann. Ade was the final ship the U-boat had torpedoed.
U-518 via Deutsches U-Boot-Museum, Cuxhaven-Altenbruch, Germany
The Atlantic holds its dead.
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One of the big hangars (No. 2) at the USCG Aviation Training Center in Mobile recently accidentally discharged its AFFF FSS (foam-o-matic) and filled the building with 400 gallons of suds. It sidelined three EADS HC-144 Ocean Sentry maritime patrol aircraft (of which the Coaties only have 18), and four Sikorsky MH-60T Jayhawks (of which the service has only 48).
The incident got a lot of attention.
Following up, the USCG sent out a memo on Friday announcing a sundown of the systems, for better or worse, in line with a November 2021 plan by the Air Force and an August 2024 plan by the Navy.
As noted in the memo, the systems are more trouble than they are worth:
In 2021, the Air Force led a joint DoD effort including the Defense Logistics Agency to assess the risks associated with replacing Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) fire suppression systems (FSS) in DoD facilities. The effort reviewed 32 years of historical data and found no hangar fuel-related fires resulting in the loss of life or an aircraft. A review of 15 years of safety mishap data uncovered 84 inadvertent activations of foam systems resulting in $24.5 million of damage, one death, 21 injuries, and 120 damaged aircraft.
Citing the 2021 Air Force Study, COMDT (CG-43) signed a charter in June 2024 establishing the Aviation Hangar Fire Suppression Integrated Project Team (IPT), REF (A). The IPT reviewed 35 years of Coast Guard mishap data and found no documented Class Bravo fires in any hangar and 26 accidental discharges, including three in the last 12 months. In reference to those three incidents, preliminary reports include damage to 12 aircraft with final damage estimates still to be determined.
The U.S. Revenue Cutter Pickering–– named for Washington’s wartime Quartermaster General and later Secretary of War– has one of the most stirring sea tales seldom told.
The 77-foot Jackass Brig, built in 1798 at Newburyport, Massachusetts, was one of six large cutters constructed as a sort of insurance plan that year as war with France loomed.
She not only looked rakish but she proved fast and maneuverable. That, coupled with the fact she could still glide along in only nine feet of water when fully loaded, meant she could hide from proper warships in coves and shallows.
NHHC NH 85146 via Naval Documents (of) the Quasi-War. . ., vol. 1, p. 328.
While most early cutters only mounted a single light swivel gun or two, Pickering had her broadside pierced with 10 gun ports on each side of her gundeck and, when the Quasi-War began, was packed with 14 guns, albeit puny Gribeauval four-pounders with a range of 700 yards (half that if using canister). Shipping out with but a 70-man crew, and seeing that each piece needed eight gunners (but could get it done in a pinch with six), Pickering was forced to have her gun crews run back and forth from port to starboard as needed.
During the Quasi-War, eight Revenue Cutters (a sloop, five schooners, and two brigs) haunted the Caribbean, and made their mark against the French by capturing 18 of the 22 prizes collected by the U.S. between 1798 and 1799– and assisted in the capture of two others!
Of these 18, Pickering alone accounted for 10 prizes.
The toughest of these was the big (250 men) and well-armed (28 guns, all of at least 6 pounds) L’Egypte Conquise after a grueling nine-hour sea battle that is the stuff of Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower. Her skipper at the time? LT (later Commodore) Edward Preble.
Pickering was later permanently transferred to the Navy and disappeared at sea in the summer of 1800 while traveling from Newcastle, Delaware to join the squadron of Commodore Thomas Truxton on the Guadeloupe Station.
The USCG, who retains the lineage of the old USRCS, recycled Pickering’s name only once: for a fast picket boat mothership stationed off Atlantic City during Prohibition to allow the little cutters to interdict rum runners headed from shore to booze-laden “blacks” floating on “Rum Row” out past the three-mile limit.
A plasma cutter at Austal USA’s shipyard in Mobile, Ala. cuts steel plates to be used to produce the Coast Guard’s fifth offshore patrol cutter, Pickering. Photo courtesy of Austal USA.
Pickering is the first of up to 11 cutters that will be delivered to the Coast Guard through the $3.3 billion Stage 2 contract with Austal USA in Mobile, where the company is transitioning from building Indy class LCSs (the final hull, the future USS Pierre, launched last month).
The newest Pickering will be delivered to the Coast Guard in late 2027.
The OPCs are set to replace the service’s circa 1980s 270-foot Bear-class and even older 210-foot Reliance-class medium endurance cutters.
OPC will provide the majority of the Coast Guard’s offshore presence conducting a variety of missions including law enforcement, drug and migrant interdiction, and search and rescue. With a range of 10,200 nautical miles at 14 knots and a 60-day endurance period, each OPC will be capable of deploying independently or as part of task groups, serving as a mobile command and control platform for surge operations such as hurricane response, mass migration incidents and other events. The cutters will also support Arctic objectives by helping regulate and protect emerging commerce and energy exploration in Alaska.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Delbert D. Black (DDG 119) sails alongside the U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Northland (WMEC 904) and the Royal Canadian Navy offshore patrol vessels HMCS Margaret Brooke (AOPV 431) and HMCS Harry DeWolf (AOPV 430) while conducting a photo exercise during Operation NANOOK (OP NANOOK) in the Atlantic Ocean, Aug. 18, 2024. OP NANOOK is the Canadian Armed Forces’ annual series of Arctic exercises designed to enhance defense capabilities, ensure the security of northern regions, and improve interoperability with allied forces. Delbert D. Black participated in the operation alongside the U.S. Coast Guard and Canadian and Danish allies to bolster Arctic readiness and fulfill each nation’s defense commitments. (U.S. Navy photo 240818-N-MA550-1086 by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Rylin Paul)
In that time, no (as in zero) new ice-capable ships have been added to the fleet or even progressed so far as to be christened. This while the country’s only medium polar icebreaker has suffered a fire that forced her to abort her latest NSF mission and the country’s only heavy polar icebreaker going through never-ending cycles of rebuilding the 50-year-old ship for 240 days a year to be able to accomplish the annual Deep Freeze resupply mission to Antarctica.
The Canadians have four of these 6,600-ton/340-foot vessels in service and two under construction with two more on order for the RCN and two unarmed near-sister Arctic and offshore patrol ships (AOPS) for the Canadian Coast Guard which are currently under construction. The eighth and final ship will be delivered in 2028. The cost is about $700 million U.S. per hull.
The Wolfs are ugly, but have a good bit of capability, being capable of operating year-round in Polar Class 4-5 ice (up to 3.9 feet of first-year ice), while embarking a big helicopter (the 30,000-pound Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone, which goes four tons heavier than the HH/SH/MH-60) and UAVs along with two large 28-foot cutters and a 40-foot landing craft.
Slow (17 knots) they have long legs (6,800nm unrefueled), able to cover the entire 1,900-mile span of the Northwest Passage, or the shorter Seattle-to-Kodiak or Boston-to-Thule runs with ease. The complement is 65, with spare berthing for embarked heli/drone dets and scientific nerds.
Armed for a constabulary “presence” and sovereignty mission they carry an enclosed Mk 38 Mod 3A 25 mm cannon and provision for a few .50 caliber mounts. In USCG service, this could be repeated and the Mk 38 updated to a 30mm gun– which is already planned for the Polar Security Cutter. I say add some Naval Strike Missiles for some serious teeth.
Produced by Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax, Nova Scotia, they are a tweak of the Norwegian Coast Guard NoCGV’s Svalbard (W303), a 6,400-ton/340-foot icebreaker and offshore patrol vessel that entered service in 2001.
Ordering while the line is hot speeds up delivery and reaps the benefit of the RCN being the beta tester on the first flight ships, allowing improvements and lessons learned to be folded into the new USCG hulls. Crews could be spun up quickly by deploying chiefs and junior officers on RCN vessels.
Further, the Trudeau government would likely be open to selling 2-3 of the ships already under construction to the U.S. to speed up the acquisition process then “forgetting” to replace them for RCN, and CCG. If nothing else, they could be launched at Irving and finished in American yards (or at the USCG Yard) with Irving’s assistance to soothe the “not made here/American jobs” noise in Congress.
Check out this great moto shot of the 270-foot Bear (Legend) class USCGC Escanaba (WMEC 907) as she offloaded more than 3,400 pounds of cocaine and 4,410 pounds of marijuana with a combined assessed street value of approximately $50 million in Port Everglades (Miami) last week after an East Pac patrol under JIATF-South tasking.
USCG Photo 240823-G-FH885-1001 by Petty Officer 3rd Class Eric Rodriguez
Taking a closer look, you see the six camouflaged gents minus nametapes which would be hardlegs of Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 107 from Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Team – Pacific (PAC TACLET).
Going further, you see the six Nomex-clad Airedales of Coast Guard Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) Jacksonville in front of their MH-65 Dolphin.
Then, counting heads in blue smurf suits and caps, you have about 80 officers and ratings of Escanaba’s crew, including the two wearing LE belts and plate carriers which are probably MEs (Maritime Enforcement Specialists).
The problem is, every journal and spec sheet on the 270s says it rates a 100-member crew and can add extra ship riders and a heli/UAV det on top of that.
Sure, somebody had to take the picture (although it was likely a District PAO from ashore) and there may be a couple of engineering guys down below but it still seems like Escanba was sailing about 15-20 percent light– on an operational deployment from Charleston SC to the Eastern Pacific and back.
No bueno.
Meanwhile, in the Pacific…
At the same time, Bear-class sister USCGC Harriet Lane (WMEC 903) last week returned to Honolulu following a 68-day patrol in support of Coast Guard District 14th Operation Blue Pacific in Oceania. The 13,400 nm patrol saw the cutter make port calls in Tonga, American Samoa, Samoa, the Cook Islands, and French Polynesia. While at anchor on 4 July following the Royal Tongan Navy’s International Fleet Review to celebrate King Tupou VI’s 65th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the Tongan Navy, her crew got in a good moto shot, complete with crisp Tropical Blues, glad rags flying, and lots of shades.
All 72 of them.
Notice Harriet Lane has landed her 76mm OTO MK 75 in favor of a Mk 38 25mm mount, which can account for a GMG rate or two, but she is still running a little light. (U.S. Coast Guard photo 240704-G-G0214-1001, courtesy Cutter Harriet Lane)
Compare the above to crew-only shots of sisters USCGC Tampa (WMEC-902) and Forward (WMEC-911) in 2019 while at Port Everglades doing drug offloads after patrols. In each of these, well over 90 personnel can be seen.
