Category Archives: military history

Assam Draggin Getting Ready for a ‘Thousand Pounder’ Raid

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“White 4” P-40K Warhawk “Konkubine” of the 25th Fighter Squadron, 51st Fighter Group, getting prepped for a mission with a 1,000-pound centerline bomb, ca 1943. From left to right; Private Anthony Zinkevich, Private Frank Bussell, Tech Sergeant Thomas Collins, Staff Sergeant Lynn Hansen, and Lieutenant Robert McClurg– who carries a Gurkha kukri at the ready and wears a CBI “blood chit” on his back.

This picture, taken 14th April 1943, appeared in the November 1943 edition of “Impact” magazine, but, noticeably, the 25th continued to fly Warhawks into 1945. Photo via NARA

Formed as the 25th Pursuit Squadron at Hamilton Field, Calif., on Jan. 15, 1941, by July the squadron received its first P-40s and by March 1942 had sailed around the globe to set up wartime operations in British India. Setting up shop in Assam, India the 25th picked up the name “Assam Draggins.” 

As noted by the USAF:

The 25th Fighter Squadron’s first real moment of glory began in February 1943 when the unit was tasked to defend Fort Hertz near Myikina. Fort Hertz was a vital cog in air operations near “the Hump.” The 25th bombed and strafed enemy troops, concentrations, supply dumps, bridges, and enemy communication lines for twelve consecutive days, but failed to slow the Japanese advance on Fort Hertz. B-25 heavy bombers were needed to halt the enemy’s drive, but none were available. Lt. Col. John E. Barr, the executive officer for the 51st Fighter Group, modified a P-40 to carry 1,000-pound bombs, and by May 1943, had halted the Japanese offensive. 

The 25th Fighter Squadron encountered more combat activity than any other unit within the 51st Fighter Group during the war. The squadron returned to the United States and was inactivated on Dec. 12, 1945.

Post-war, they flew F-80s, F-86s, and F-4s, switching to the A-10 in 1982, which they currently operate out of Osan Air Base, South Korea.

Army Reset, 1903 edition

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Some 120 years ago, the U.S. Army’s experience fighting in Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Spanish-American War, followed by overseas campaigning in the Western Pacific to pacify the Philippines, led the force to leave behind its only gently updated Frontier ways for something more modern. For example in these American Solider prints by H. Charles McBarron.

The 1898 U.S. Soldier shows the last use of the blue Army field uniform in a major U.S. war. The trend toward neutral colors had led to the adoption of a khaki tropical service uniform but few of the troops who reached Cuba were issued it. Also note the exposed cartridge Mills belt, from which hang his canvas haversack and the knife bayonet for his side-loading Krag rifle. In addition to the old “Union blue” uniform trimmed in black mohair, both the Medical Department officer and the artillery private are wearing the enameled red, white, and blue five-bastion fort badge of Headquarters, Fifth Army Corps, on their hats– an extension of the unit identification system introduced during the Civil War.

The below 1903 plate by McBarron shows the difference just a half-decade can make. Showing troops in the Philippine Islands, they are wearing khaki tropical service dress with bronze buttons. The Grab campaign hat, distinctively American, became the official head covering and was the most liked by the soldier.

In the left foreground is a first lieutenant with the gold hat cord and bronze coat of arms of the United States on his standing collar, both worn by all officers of the Army. On his coat he wears the silver shoulder bar of his rank and on his collar bronze crossed rifles indicate his arm, the infantry. The lieutenant’s breeches are laced from the calf nearly to the knee and are close fitting to go under his russet leather leggings. His waistbelt, of the same color of leather, supports his .38-caliber holstered service revolver and his saber.

The sergeant in the right foreground is in the same uniform as the lieutenant. He has an infantry blue cord on his hat and infantry blue chevrons on the sleeves of his coat despite the adoption of white as the infantry color in late 1902. Troops in or returning from the Philippines were permitted to continue using items in the old infantry blue until they were worn out and stocks were exhausted. On the sergeant’s hat can be seen the numeral and letter identifying his unit and on his collar the crossed rifles and the block letters U.S., all in bronze. In the place of the lieutenant’s leather leggings he wears khaki, canvas ones, and his belt is the blue-grey looped cartridge belt used with the .30-caliber Krag rifle.

The privates in the background are wearing the most frequently seen version of the khaki uniform without the coat—dark navy blue wool shirt, which was a holdover from pre-tropical service days. The soldier on the left is ready for field service with his blanket roll, covered by the khaki shelter half, slung over his shoulder. The soldier on the right, a sentry, carries only his rifle and wears the cartridge belt.

Of course, the Krag in 1903 was on its way out, replaced by the Mauser-based M1903 Springfield and its big M1905 bayonet, with the Mills belt to be phased out instead of the 10-pouch dual-stripper clip M1910 canvas belt that would become iconic in the Great War.

Similarly, the largely ornamental Model 1902 Army Officers’ Saber replaced the Civil War-era M1850 Staff & Field Officers Sword– resulting in the weapon no longer being suitable for campaigning– while the very capable M1911 .45 ACP would tap out the anemic Colt M1892 .38 Long revolver. 

With a few other changes, the road to the Doughboy of 1917 was clear.

Soldier with 30th DIV sniping from a trench in Belgium July 9, 1918. 

Lions from Ohio

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Some 105 years ago today, the doughboys of the U.S. 332d Infantry Regiment wrapped up the Vittorio-Veneto Operation as part of the Italian 31st Division under the command of the British XIV Corps and Tenth Italian Army.

The 332nd was the only American combat outfit to fight in Italy during the Great War. While Washington had planned to send three American divisions to Italy, it turned out the 332nd was all that made it. 

Only formed on 30 August 1917 at Camp Sherman, Ohio, the regiment was comprised of large numbers of young men from the Buckeye State, including many from Cleveland, Akron, and Youngstown. Training at Camp Perry in the bitter lake-affect winter cold, they shipped out for England and, post-Capporetto, were detailed to help shore up the faltering Italians.

Keep in mind the U.S. only declared war on Austria-Hungary on 7 December 1917, eight months after it declared war against Germany.

Members of the 83d Division’s 332d Infantry and 331st Field Hospital arrive in Villa Franca, Italy, NARA. Approximately 1,200 American soldiers took part in the Vittorio-Veneto Campaign.

Arriving at Milan on 28 July 1918, by September units were stationed on the front lines and taking casualties.

Doughboys of the 2nd Battalion, 332nd Infantry in front line trenches on the Piave sector, near Varage, Italy, September 28, 1918.

Doughboys of the 332d Infantry on the march near Grave di Papadopoli, Italy, NARA.

Then, on Halloween 1918, they crossed the Piave and fought as the point unit for the Italian division they were assigned to until the Austro-Hungarians quit the war on 4 November 1918. 

“American Soldier, 1918,” by H. Charles McBarron,” American Soldier Series, CMH. The image depicts Doughboys of the 332d Infantry training with a Bersaglieri regiment of the Italian army. Shown in the painting are U.S. Army and Italian Bersaglieri troops as they train in preparation for combat with the Austrians. The soldiers of the 332d Infantry Regiment are armed with the M1903 Springfield rifle and M1905 bayonet and are attired in the standard US Army uniform and equipment of the period. The Bersaglieri are wearing the standard 1909 grey-green uniform with steel grey helmets and cockerel feathers and carrying a pistol and an M1891 6.5mm Mannlicher-Carcano rifle and bayonet at the ready. U.S. Army CMH image

The shoulder sleeve insignia of the 332nd Infantry was created as a commemoration of its service in Italy and included the winged Lion of St. Mark (symbol of Venice) with one paw resting on an open Bible. U.S. Army CMH images

Then came several months of post-war occupation and peacekeeping duties in the Balkans spreading from Fiume (today Rijeka, Croatia) to Montenegro.

Soldiers of Co “K”, 332nd Infantry in Fiume – Dinner Jan 9, 1919.

Returning home to a hero’s welcome in New York and Cleveland, they disbanded in May 1919 and, while reorganized and reactivated several times since then, have never seen combat again.

Parade in honor of returning heroes at Cleveland, Ohio. 332nd Infantry on Euclid Ave., at E. 14th, 29 April 1919. NARA 185-WW-85C31

Their story is probably best detailed in the 76-page Regimental history book printed for its Veterans in 1919.

Of course, fast forward to 1944 and a different 332nd from the U.S. Army would arrive in Italy with a whole ‘nother lineage and a valorous future to be written– but that is another story. 

American fighter pilot Edward C. Gleed of the 332nd Fighter Group watches as two aircraft technicians attach an additional fuel tank to the P-51D Mustang “Creamer’s Dream” at Ramitelli Airfield in Italy. March 1945. Judging by the inscription on the tank, its capacity is 110 US gallons (about 416 liters).

USAAF armorer of the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, 15th U.S. Air Force checks ammunition belts of the 12.7 mm machine guns in the wings of a North American P-51B Mustang in Italy, ca. September 1944.

FFH Group & Surveillance Force Grenada, 1983-84

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As a wrap of our coverage of the 40th anniversary of the 1983 invasion of Grenada, we take a look at the unique surface action group that arrived to assist in the peacekeeping phase of the operation, which ran roughly through November and December when the last U.S. combat troops were withdrawn– that of hydrofoils operating with a frigate mothership.

Mid-November 1983 found the newly commissioned Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate USS Aubrey Fitch (FFG-34), along with the two equally new Pegasus-class hydrofoil patrol boats, USS Aquila (PHM-4) and Taurus (PHM-3) in Guantanamo Bay “for the purpose of testing the feasibility of operating those types of ships in the same task organization.”

As noted by Fitch’s DANFS entry, she assumed tactical control of the hydrofoils and jetted over to Grenada:

Demands incident to the continuing American presence in Grenada, however, overtook the experiment and sent Aubrey Fitch and her two consorts south to the tiny republic. Duty in the waters adjacent to Grenada lasted until mid-December when the warship returned to Mayport.

All three were eligible for the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for Urgent Fury.

Aquila and Taurus would return to their homeport at Key West on 16 December and spend the rest of their career in unsung law enforcement support work in the Caribbean and off Central America, being decommissioned as a class in 1993 with their sisters and disposed of in 1996.

Fitch lasted a little longer. Decommissioned on 12 December 1997, the frigate was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 31 May 1999 and sold for scrap shortly after.

Sadly, there are no photos I can find of Fitch and her two ‘foils operating together in Cuba-Grenada Oct-Dec 1983, which is tragic, but drink in these were taken of the ships separately early in their careers.

USS AUBREY FITCH (FFG 34) underway 1982 Bath trials DN-SC-85-04417

USS AUBREY FITCH (FFG 34) underway 1982 Bath trials DN-SC-85-04399

USS AUBREY FITCH (FFG 34) underway 1982 Bath trials DN-SC-85-04401

hydrofoils USS AQUILA (PHM 4), front, and USS GEMINI (PHM 6), center, lie tied up in port with a third PHM. The Coast Guard surface effect ship (SES) cutter USCGC SHEARWATER (WSES 3) is in the background. NARA photo

Hydrofoil patrol combatant missile ship USS TAURUS (PHM 3) race by. Navy hydrofoils are regularly used on Joint Task Force 4 drug interdiction missions.

DN-ST-90-09381 The patrol combatant missile hydrofoils USS HERCULES (PHM 2) and USS TAURUS (PHM 3) maneuver off of Key West, Florida.

Seattle pegasus class hydrofoil USS Taurus (PHM-3) during her acceptance trials

USS Hercules (PHM-2) and Taurus (PHM-3) 1983

Cue USCG

As for what happened from a maritime perspective after Fitch and her PHMs returned home, the answer is that the Coast Guard took over the task of policing Grenada’s waters for the next year, and it should be pointed out that two HC-130s and the 378-foot Hamilton-class cutter USCGC Chase (WHEC 718), which was deployed from 23 Oct – 21 Nov 1983, served during the shooting-part of Urgent Fury, earning the deploying units the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for their service.

The follow-on Operation Island Breeze USCG Grenada Getaway response was a WWII-era 180-foot Balsam (Iris) class buoy tender that served as the mothership for three rotating 95-foot cutters drawn from the Florida-based Seventh Coast Guard District, allowing the small boat crews to get some showers and better food as well as mechanical support from the tender’s extensive onboard workshop.

On 8 December 1983, the Cape-class patrol cutters Cape Gull (WPB-95304), Cape Fox (WPB-95316), Cape Shoalwater (WPB 95324), and the tender Sagebrush (WLB-399) arrived off of the island of Grenada to replace U.S. Navy surface forces conducting surveillance operations after the U.S. invasion of the island earlier that year.

Commissioned on 1 April 1944, Sagebrush spent most of her service life home-ported in San Juan, Puerto Rico, earning four USCG Unit Commendations before she was decommissioned on 26 April 1988.

USCGC Cape Fox (WPB 95316) celebrating Christmas 1983 off Grenada 1983.

Note the two mounted M2 .50 cals, rare for Capes in the 1980s, as well as the Christmas tree on deck.

The Capes used three crews, Green, Blue, and Red, rotating out every 30 days, and used backpack HF radio sets borrowed from the Army to communicate with the forces ashore. Support shoreside for the roughly 100-man force came from two 20-foot containers in port converted into shops.

For air support, they had HC-130Hs out of Clearwater fly over occasionally, taking off and recovering at CGAS Borinquen, as well as a weekly logistics run.

They would remain on station until 3 February 1984 when replaced by a similar group, a task that would run through the end of the year.

The WPB/WLB force was rotated out roughly every three months in 1984 and saw the buoy tender USCGC Mesquite (WLB 305), her sister USCGC Gentian (WLB 290), and the 140-foot icebreaker (!) Mobile Bay (WTGB 103) which sailed from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the number of WPBs was cut from three to two. 

The sum, as detailed by ADM James S. Gracey, USCG:

After a few days, the Navy figured out that patrolling around the island to keep people from coming on or going off, additional people coming on or other people from escaping, wasn’t working very well with Navy PCs or whatever they were using, whereas our smaller patrol boats would do the job very well. So we took over. We were there long after everybody else had gone home doing this operation and other things that the Coast Guard always does when we are someplace. That was Grenada.

A lasting legacy of the USCG in Grenada was the reformation of the Grenadian Coast Guard, an organization that endures today, with a little help from its northern neighbor.

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023: Mad Marcus

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023: Mad Marcus

Photographer: PHCM/AC Louis P. Bodine Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 107602

Above we see a great 1968 image of the Edsall-class destroyer escort-turned-radar picket, USS Vance (DER-387) underway off the coast of Oahu. At this time in the little tin can’s life, she had left her mark on the end of two German U-boats, frozen in polar expeditions, logged three very trying tours off coastal Vietnam, and survived a real-life Lt. Commander Queeg who, no shit, was named for a Roman emperor.

She was brought to life on this day in 1943.

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.

edsallArmed 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.

Meet USS Vance

Our subject is the only U.S. Navy warship to carry the name of Joseph Williams Vance, Jr.. A mustang who volunteered for the Navy Reserve at age 21 in 1940, the young Seman Vance served aboard the old battlewagon USS Arkansas (BB-33) and, as he had university hours at Southwestern and Florida on his jacket, was appointed a midshipman in the rapidly expanding Navy after four months in the fleet. Joining the flush deck tin can USS Parrott (DD-218) in the Philippines on 16 April as an ensign in charge of the destroyer’s torpedo battery. Facing the Japanese onslaught in the Western Pacific, Ensign Vance picked up a Bronze Star at the Battle of Makassar Strait (24 January 1942)– the Navy’s first surface action victory in the Pacific– saw action in the Java sea and the Badoeng Strait, and, by Guadalcanal, had been promoted to lieutenant (junior grade). With the promotion came a transfer– to the ill-fated HMAS Canberra, as liaison officer with the Royal Australian Navy. He was aboard Canberra on that tragic night off Savo Island on 9 August 1942 when the Kent-class heavy cruiser was sent to the depths of “Ironbottom Sound” with 73 other members of her crew.

His body lost to sea at age 23, his family remembered Joe in a cenotaph at Bethlehem Cemetery in Memphis. He is also marked on the Tablet of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. The paperwork for Makassar Strait caught up to him eventually and his family was presented his bronze star posthumously.

The future Vance (DE-387) was laid down on 30 April 1943 at Houston, Texas by the Brown Shipbuilding Co. and launched just 10 weeks later on 16 July 1943.

She was sponsored by the late Lt. (jg.) Vance’s grieving mother, Elizabeth Sarah “Beth” Harrison Vance, and Joe’s sister, Willie.

A Coast Guard-manned DE, Vance’s pre-commissioning crew was formed in August 1943 at the sub-chaser school in Miami while their ship was under construction on the other side of the Gulf of Mexico. Consisting of 40 officers and men drawn from across the USCG– most had seen war service chasing subs and escorting convoys across the Atlantic. This skilled cadre left Miami after two months of training and headed to Houston in early October, joining 30 newly minted techs and specialists direct from A schools and 130 assorted bluejackets right from basic.

All hands moved aboard USS Vance on 1 November 1943 when she was commissioned at the Tennessee Coal & Iron Docks in Houston, LCDR Eric Alvin Anderson, USCG, in command. As noted by her War History, “The shipyard orchestra played for the commissioning ceremonies and later sandwiches and coffee were served to all hands.”

Following outfitting and shakedown cruises off Bermuda, Vance became the flagship for the all-USCG Escort Division (CortDiv) 45, including the sequentially numbered sisters USS Lansing (DE-388), Durant (DE-389), Calcaterra (DE-390), Chambers (DE-391) and Merrill (DE-392) with Commodore E.J. Roland raising his command pennant aboard on 19 December.

The CNO, ADM Ernest J. King, had, in June 1943, ordered the Coast Guard to staff and operate 30 new (mostly Edsall-class) destroyer escorts on Atlantic ASW duties, trained especially at the Submarine Training Centers at Miami and Norfolk. Each would be crewed by 11 officers and 166 NCOs/enlisted, translating to a need for 5,310 men, all told.

By November 1943, it had been accomplished! Quite a feat.

The USCG-manned DEs would be grouped in five Escort Divisions of a half dozen ships each, 23 of which were Edsalls:

  • Escort Division 20–Marchand, Hurst, Camp, Crow, Pettie, Ricketts.
  • Escort Division 22–Poole, Peterson, Harveson, Joyce, Kirkpatrick, Leopold.
  • Escort Division 23–Sellstrom, Ramsden, Mills, Rhodes, Richey, Savage.
  • Escort Division 45–Vance, Lansing, Durant, Calcaterra, Chambers, Morrill.
  • Escort Division 46–Menges, Mosley, Newell, Pride, Falgout, Lowe.

These ships were soon facing off with the Germans in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

War!

Celebrating Christmas 1943 at sea “being tossed around like a matchstick,” Vance’s first escort job was to ride shotgun on a group of tankers running from Port Arthur, Texas to Norfolk just after the New Year, then escorting the jeep carrier USS Core (CVE-13) to New York City.

She crossed the Atlantic with her division to escort a large slow (7-10 knots) convoy, UGS.33, to Gibraltar in February then turned around to the return trip with a GUS convoy, returning to the Med with UGS 39 in May, where she would come face to face with the enemy. On 14 May 1944, the Type VIIC sub U-616 (Kplt. Siegfried Koitschka) torpedoed two Allied merchants– the British flagged G.S. Walden (7,127 tons) and Fort Fidler (10,627 tons).

From Vance’s war history:

Eight American destroyers and aircraft from five squadrons hunted U-616 until it was sunk on 17 May, lost with all hands.

1944 Palermo, Sicily – USS Vance (DE 387) via navsource

Following her battle with U-616, Vance would recycle and cross the Atlantic again with UGS.46 in June, UGS.53 in September, UGS.66 in January 1945, UGS.78 in March 1945, and UGS.90 in May 1945. The latter dispersed on 18 May as it wasn’t considered needed after the German surrender.

It was on this last convoy that the advanced Type IXD2 Schnorchel-fitted submarine, U-873 (Kptlt. Friedrich Steinhoff), was sighted on the surface at 0230 on 11 May off the Azores by Vance and her sister, Durant. Finding Steinhoff’s crew, illuminated by 24-inch searchlights and with every gun on two destroyers trained on them, ready to surrender and the boat making no offensive actions, Vance put a whaleboat with the ship’s XO, Lt. Carlton J. Schmidt, USCGR; Ensign Vance K. Randle, USCG; and 19 enlisted aboard to take U-873 as prize. They found seven Kriegsmarine officers and 52 enlisted, about half of whom had come from the gesunken U-604.

By 0410, a spare U.S. ensign was hoisted aboard the German boat, and Vance, departing the convoy with her prize, made for Bermuda, then was directed to Casco Bay to bring the sub to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, arriving there on the 17th.

U-873 is under her own power, manned by 2 officers and 19 crewmembers of USS Vance DE 387. Notably, U-873 carried a rare twin 3.7 cm Flakzwilling M43U on the DLM42 mount, seen stern. Photo courtesy of Joe Haberkern, son of Joseph W. Haberkern, Jr., MoMM2/C, Plankowner

Captain Friedrich Steinhoff (wearing white cap) and Officers and Crew of Surrendered German U-873 on Deck of Tug, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, May 17, 1945. Note the Marine to the right with a Reising SMG at the ready. NARA photo

Steinhoff under heavy Marine guard

Crewmembers of USS Vance DE 387. Showing items from their captured German U-boat, U-873. Photo courtesy of Joe Haberkern, son of Joseph W. Haberkern, Jr., MoMM2/C, Plankowner

Sadly, as detailed by U-boat.net, even though VE-Day was well past, post-war POW life would not be kind to U-873‘s crew.

Steinhoff and his men were taken, not to POW camp, but to Charles Street Jail, a Boston city jail where they were locked up with common criminals while awaiting disposition to a POW camp. There are many accounts of mistreatment of the U-boat men while they were held there.

After suffering harsh interrogation, Steinhoff- [brother of rocket scientist and future U.S> Army rocketry bright bulb Ernst Steinhoff] committed suicide on the morning of 19 May 1945, opening his arteries using broken glass from his sunglasses. U-873‘s doctor, Dr. Karl Steinke, attempted to give first aid but was too late.

Steinhoff was buried in the military cemetery at Fort Devens, age 35, while the rest of his crew were sent to warm their skin in a Mississippi POW camp until repatriated.

As for U-873, she was placed in dry dock for a design study of her type by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard engineers and then later transferred to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for tests. After trials, the U-boat was scrapped in 1948, her lessons being rolled into the Navy’s GUPPY program.

For Vance, her war in the Atlantic and Med was over.

She put into Boston Naval Yard for additional AAA guns and departed on 2 July 1945 bound for the Pacific. Crossing through “The Ditch” and putting into San Diego then Pearl Harbor, she was there with orders to sail for the 5th Fleet in Philippine waters when news of the Japanese surrender overtook her.

Ordered to the Green Cove Springs, Florida reserve fleet, she was decommissioned on 27 February 1946. Her Coast Guard crew returned to their home service, with most being demobilized. Her skipper for five of her eight convoy runs and the capture of U-873, LCDR Frank Vincent Helmer, USCG (USCGA ’35), would go on to retire as a rear admiral during the 1960s.

The Edsall class, 1946 Janes.

Break out the White Paint

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.

This brings us to Vance, some seven years in Florida mothballs, being recommissioned as the white-painted USCGC Vance (WDE-487) on 9 May 1952. She was stationed at Honolulu, and, assigned to the Commander Philippine Section, served on Ocean Station Queen there from 2-23 August 1953, and again on 4-24 October 1953.

Coast Guard Cutter Vance WDE 487 working with a Sangley Point USCG-operated PBM-5G, one of two PBM-5Gs and a JRF that were assigned to augment the PBY-5As there in 1951-53. Importantly, one of the Sangley Point PBMs went to attempt the rescue of a VP-22 P2V-5 Neptune (BuNo 127744) crew shot down in the Formosa Strait while the aircraft was on a covert patrol along the Communist Chinese coast near Swatow. USCG photo 211103-G-G0000-002

Vance was decommissioned for a second time on 3 April 1954 and returned to the Navy.

DER

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 Vance 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

Vance was towed to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in November 1955 for conversion to a radar picket destroyer escort. Designated DER-378 as a result, she recommissioned for a second time on 5 October 1956, a 12-year-old Navy escort with its first Navy skipper, CDR Albert Martin Brouner (USNA ‘44).

USS Vance (DER-387) underway in San Francisco Bay, California (USA), on 1 November 1956. Note her 3-inch guns are open, which would change in the 1960s when they would get distinctive weather shields. Photo via Navsource

As detailed by DANFS:

Between March of 1957 and the end of the year, Vance was homeported at Seattle, Wash., as a unit of CortDiv 5 and completed eight patrols on various stations of the Radar Early Warning System in the northern Pacific. Each tour lasted approximately 17 days, and the ship maintained a round-the-clock vigil with air-search radars, tracking and reporting every aircraft entering or approaching the air space of the northwestern United States.

This continued into 1958 when she shifted homeports to Pearl Harbor; and she began operating with CortRon 7, the first ship working the DEW line in the newly organized Pacific barrier patrol. This would continue through early 1965, with a segway to join TF43 for Deepfreeze ’62, serving as the relay ship for aircraft bringing supplies to the Antarctic stations from Dunedin, New Zealand between August 1961 and March 1962. In this duty, she was called “The Loneliest Ship in the Navy.”

Then came Vietnam.

Market Time

With the DEW line service fading as far as the Navy was concerned at the same time the Navy established Operation Market Time (March 1965-1972) to prevent North Vietnamese ships from supplying enemy forces in South Vietnam, recycling the fleet’s increasingly idle shallow-draft DERs into what would be today called a littoral combat ship was an easy choice.

Vance would complete four WestPac cruises (March-Sept 1965, Jan.-August 1966, Dec. 1966- August 1967, Jan-Aug. 1968) with the 7th Fleet, detached to TF 115 for use in brown water. Of note, she was the first DER to take a Market Time station, reporting for duty to CTU 71.1.1 on 1 April 1965, and soon after was the first U.S. Navy ship to take aboard a Vietnamese Navy Liaison Officer while underway.

USS VANCE South China Sea 1966. Note the weather shields on her 3-inch mount

For example, during this time Task Force 115 consisted of an LST mothership, 70 Navy PCFs, 26 Coast Guard 82-foot patrol boats (WPBs), with the support of the “big boys” in the form of eight DERs (including Vance), and 16 smaller minesweepers (six MSCs, and 10 MSOs).

USS Vance (DER-387) – November 1967. Note her Hedgehog device uncovered and ready to rock 

A typical breakdown of how one of these deployments would run can be had from Vance’s 220-day 1967 stint which included 62 days on Market Time operations in the Vietnam littoral, 24 days on the tense Taiwan Patrol, and 15 days in Hong Kong as SOPA Admin station ship. To illustrate just how busy a Market Time rotation could be, in her short 1965 deployment which included just 92 days under TF 115, Vance had 1,538 radar contacts, sighted visually 1,001, and investigated 185 vessels.

USS Vance (DER-387) underway at sea on 26 November 1967 NHHC

Among the more notable incidents while on Market Time was saving Capt. Leland D. Holcomb, USAF, who had ejected from a burning F-100 Super Sabre in 1965 while on a ferry mission from Danang to Clark AFB in the PI. Her 1966, 1967, and 1968 reports are on file in the NHHC and make interesting and sometimes entertaining reading.

Vance as radar picket 1960s with her glad rags flying. Note by this time the large EW “pod” on her aft mast.

Oh yeah, something else happened while off Vietnam as well.

The Arnheiter Affair

LCDR Marcus Aurelius Arnheiter entered West Point in 1946 but subsequently resigned, later obtaining an appointment to Annapolis where he passed out as 628th of 783 mids in 1952 and then saw Korean War service on the battleship USS Iowa (BB-61). He later saw much service on destroyers (USS Ingersoll– where he served as XO– Fiske, Coolbaugh, Abbot, and Worden), held a series of staff appointments in the Pentagon where he authored a novel (Shadow of Pearl) under a pseudonym before arriving on Vance’s quarterdeck as her 14th (7th Navy) skipper on 22 December 1965.

Just 99 days later, he was relieved of his first, and last, seagoing command.

The scandal over just what happened in those 99 days aboard Vance is lengthy, including a book by NYT writer Neil Sheehan that was the subject of a libel suit filed by Arnheiter. Suffice it to say, there are avenues to dig deeper if you are curious but among the (many) oddities seen on Vance during Arnheiter’s command was the purchase (through MWR funds!) of a 16-foot fiberglass speedboat that was armed with a .30 caliber M1919 machine gun and painted with a shark’s mouth.

The speedboat was supposed to be for interdiction and patrol work but ended up getting Vance’s crew into problems time after time.

Other oddities included the skipper’s insistence to blare the Hellcat Reveille over the 1MC while in port rather than a simple bosun call for reveille, follow gun line destroyers into no-go areas while they were performing NGFS ashore to the point that said destroyer’s skipper directed the radio traffic be recorded and incident logged, establishing a “boner box” in the wardroom with mandatory levies of 25-cents per perceived infraction, requiring non-religious personnel to attend services, cruising danger close to shore (like within small arms range) while only one engine was working, doubling the small arms locker from 15 authorized M1 Garands to 30 without permission then holding wild live-fire drills in congested waters (to include reportedly keeping a rifle on the bridge wing that the skipper would use to zip off rounds at random “sea snakes” while VBSS crews were away checking a sampan.)

Following a six-day non-judicial inquiry at Subic, Arnheiter was removed from his command quietly but not reprimanded or court-martialed, even though he repeatedly requested the latter to clear his name, even lobbying Congress. He ended up retiring from the service in 1971, still as an LCDR, and passed in 2009, aged 83. Sheehan died in 2021, likely closing the matter although both continue to be the subject of much conversation.

As for USS Vance, her usefulness ended following extensive Vietnam service, she was decommissioned on 10 October 1969.

Her fellow DERs shared a similar fate, either laid up in mothballs or transferred to overseas allies.

1973 Janes on the Edsall class DERs.

Stricken on June 1, 1975, Vance was used as a target for several years off the California coast until finally sent to the bottom in deep water in a 1985 SINKEX.

Vance in August 1983 when being used as a target ship off San Francisco. The sign amidships reads “Target Ship – Stand Clear.” Photo from Ozzie Henry who acquired them from a sailor at a DESA Convention. Via the USS Vance veterans’ group.

Vance received seven battle stars for USN service in Vietnam in addition to her USCG service in WWII and Korea.

Epilogue

Vance’s war history, plans, and diaries are in the National Archives.

Vance’s memories are carried forward by a well-organized veterans’ group and they last had a reunion last October in Georgia.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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Triple bruisers

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80 years ago today: A trio of rather different U.S. Navy heavy cruisers: (listed from left to right) the sisters USS Salt Lake City (CA-25) and USS Pensacola (CA-24), along with the lead shp of her class, USS New Orleans (CA-32), nested together at Pearl Harbor, 31 October 1943. Note the varied radar antennas, gun directors, and 8-inch guns on these three cruisers.

Official U.S. Navy photo 80-G-264236 from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command

Going past the cruisers, Ford Island is at the left, with the sunken (though still in commission) battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37) under salvage at the extreme left, just beyond Salt Lake City’s forward superstructure. Two New Mexico-class battleships are visible in the background between Pensacola and New Orleans.

As for the above cruisers, while the New York-built SLC (aka “Swayback Maru”) and P’Cola (the “Grey Ghost”) are sisters and were commissioned within three months of each other, note the different radar fits, with the former carrying a CXAM and the latter an SG, like the newer USS New Orleans (“the NO Boat”) at dockside.

When it came to main guns, while all three carried the same general 8″/55 cal guns, typically re-gunned during WWII with Mark 14 variants, the Pensacolas had cramped gun houses with fixed below-deck magazine handling rooms to save treaty tonnage (at the sake of poor dispersion patterns) while New Orleans had much more efficient gun turrets with both more room and rotating stalks, albeit at a weight gain of about 50 tons per turret.

Of note, Salt Lake City had just returned to service in this photo after seven months under repair following heavy damage from Japanese cruiser fire in the Komandorski Islands.

In all, the three above cruisers would earn no less than 41 battle stars (with New Orleans holding 17 of those) for their WWII service. As a reward, the older two were disposed of as Atomic targets shortly after the war while New Orleans, after 12 years in mothballs, was sold for scrap in 1959.

Grenada at 40: The Eastern Caribbean Peace Force

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The green light to intervention in Grenada, besides the fact that 50 American diplomats and 600 American medical students were caught in the crossfire of the country’s latest military coup, was that the acting head of the eight-member OECS, Prime Minister Eugenia Charles of Dominica, asked the U.S. to intervene in Grenada. Her request was made on behalf of seven members—Dominica, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, and the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda. This request was endorsed by Commonwealth member Grenada’s figurehead governor-general, Paul Scoon, who represented the queen on the island but was under house arrest at the time and had no voice in the Marxist government.

While a mixed task group of Delta-augmented Rangers, SEAL-augmented Marines, and a brigade of the 82nd Airborne did the ground fighting from 25-29 October, a smaller light battalion-sized follow-on force drawn from the OECS, dubbed the Eastern Caribbean Peace Force, arrived to provide a constabualry force on Grenada for the next 23 months.

Prime Minister Seaga promised a reinforced infantry company from Jamaica and Prime Minister Adams a reinforced infantry platoon from Barbados. At the same time, the other prime ministers–Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Kitts and Nevis– contributed detachments from their police forces. Antigua and Barbuda later chipped in an infantry squad.

Until that time, the forces had never worked together although they did share a mix of Commonwealth (British) kit including some WWII-vintage helmets, Pattern 58 web gear, and inch-pattern FN FAL L1A1 variants– which at least used 7.62 NATO, the latter about the only thing the Americans could support.

Consisting of 353 troops from allied Caribbean nations, the force was under the command of Colonel Rudyard Lewis, who began his military career in 1951 when he enlisted as a cadet in the old Barbados Regiment and, after graduating from Sandhurst in 1962 and 15 years of service with the Jamaica Defence Force, became Chief of Staff of the Barbados Defence Force in 1980.

The U.S. accepted transport and supply ownership of the ECPF from the get-go, with the USAF flying the contingents to the island via C-130s and the Navy covering their immediate logistics needs (such as food, helmets, flak vests, boots, and some field radios), a task that later fell to the Army.

Eastern Caribbean Defense Force members arrive in Grenada. Note the British WWII-era Mk III/IV “turtle” helmet on the Barbados trooper in the front of the column, wearing green fatigues, the garrison belts and red-striped trousers of the assorted constables complete with Pattern 58 webbing, and the general armament consisting of the L1A1. NARA df-st-84-09830

Barbados troops with their distinctive OD fatigues and berets. Note the blue brassards on their uniforms, marking them as members of the “police” oriented ECPF. At some point shortly after arrival, the force was given American M1 steel pot helmets and Jungle boots from USMC stocks, which the trooper in the foreground can be seen wearing. Note the DPM-clad Jamaicans in the center background. NARA dn-sn-85-02056

While it was envisioned that the Carribean peacekeepers would, at the most, guard arrested Cuban nationals/surrendered Grenadian POWs until they were repatriated or paroled– a task they took over from 2nd Battalion, 75th Rangers on the afternoon of 24 October just after they landed– they were also used in a limited role in supporting JTF 123’s stalled attack on St. George’s on 25 October.

Cubans are guarded by a member of the Eastern Caribbean Defense Force as they sit in a holding area waiting for their removal from the island during Operation URGENT FURY. Judging from the web gear and uniform, this appears to be a member of the Barbados detachment and the date is sometime between 24-28 October. NARA df-st-84-09823

Members of the Eastern Caribbean Defense Force board a US Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter at Point Salines Airfield during the multiservice, multinational Operation URGENT FURY. Note the American jungle boots, L1A1s, and assorted green utilities and black berets– marking these troops as members of the Barbados detachment. NARA DF-SN-84-10813

Barbados members of the Eastern Caribbean Defense Force participating in Operation URGENT FURY. Note the M1 steel pots, Pattern 58 gear, and L1A1s, NARA DN-SN-85-02035

DPM-clad Jamaican Defense Force Members of the Eastern Caribbean Defense Force board a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter during Operation URGENT FURY. Note the newly supplied American jungle boots and M1 helmets, complete with EDRL covers, likely drawn right from USMC stocks. NARA DF-ST-84-09935

A Barbados member of the Eastern Caribbean Defense Force participating in Operation URGENT FURY. He is armed with a 7.62 mm L1A1 and sports several new additions to his kit including an M69 flak vest, a pair of Zeiss Hensoldt military binos, and some jungle boots. His pants, rather than the fatigues they arrived in, seem to be Navy dungarees. NARA DN-SN-84-12051

Barbados Caribbean Peacekeeping Force members with their L1A1s, fatigues, and black berets, next to some JDF members in DPM. At first the American concern on the ground was the similarity the BDF uniforms had to Cuban regulars and they soon added lots of Marine kit to their wardrobe. NARA DN-SN-85-02057

The CMH’s history of the subject, The Rucksack War, notes, “The American officers who worked with the Caribbean Peacekeeping Force generally gave high marks to the soldiers from Jamaica and Barbados.”

The 2nd Ranger’s S-4 shop, led by Capt. Jose G. Ventura, also found the Jamaican and Barbadan troops to have a particular skill set.

From The Rucksack War:

Captain Ventura’s first thought after relinquishing the detainees was to obtain a share of the captured vehicles for the 2d Battalion. Some of the members of the Caribbean Peacekeeping Force, he noted, were quite adept at jump-starting trucks. One of them helped him start a number of vehicles that he wanted—two water trucks full of potable water and a big Soviet dump truck that could be used for hauling supplies.

By the 27th, the Barbados platoon of the ECPF was detailed to protect the residence of Governor General Sir Paul Scoon, who was the de facto government on the island at the time.

By the late afternoon of the 28th, the peacekeepers handed over the POW compound to the recently flown-in 118th Military Police Company of the XVIII Airborne Corps and switched to general policing and internal security roles. After that, the ECPF would report to Scoon directly.

Members of the Eastern Caribbean Defense Force in front of the police building during Operation URGENT FURY. Note the lightly equipped Jamaican Defense Force members in the center, clad in British DPM pattern uniforms, while four Barbados detachment members are to the left, including one on a radiotelephone. Note the different beret colors (green for the JDF, black for the BDF) and shared blue brassards. 

When the last U.S. combat unit on Grenada– 2d Battalion, 505th Infantry– left the island on 12 December– B. Gen. Jeffrey M. Farris (Citadel ’59) turned over command of the Urgent Fury operation (then renamed Operation Island Breeze) to the ECPF. 

Together with a 250-man group of XVIII Corps technical advisers and some British police trainers, they would rebuild the Royal Grenadian Police Force and stand guard during the 1984 presidential election on the island.

The mission completed, the last 60 soldiers from the XVIII Airborne Corps departed Grenada on 11 June 1985 and the final members of the ECPF left at the end of that September.

Brigadier Rudyard Lewis, GCM, CVO, ED, JP, received the Gold Crown of Merit from Barbados in 1983. In March 1989 he was honoured by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, being made Commander of the Victorian Order. He retired in 1999, capping 48 years in service.

The ECPF led to the creation of the Barbados-based Regional Security System, with most of the same member nations. They just observed the group’s 40th anniversary, and conduct a yearly Unity Exercise (UNEX) in addition to frequently activating the system’s Response Mechanism “to assist and support our Member States in the event of any occurrence of damage or threat to life,” usually in mutual humanitarian and constabulary support after hurricanes and tropical storms. They also share research, intelligence, advisory, technical, and administrative support among the member states.

Hail the mighty OHP at 50

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A half-century ago today, a big event happened in terms of naval history.

The class leader of what was probably the best type of frigate ever used by the U.S. Navy in the 20th Century, the sixth USS Oliver Hazard Perry (PFG-109) was ordered from Bath Iron Works on 30 October 1973 as part of the FY73 program.

The 1973 Jane’s article on the project, showed the frigate with the same style stack arrangement as the Coast Guard’s 378-foot Hamilton class that had just been built, and the only gun being a twin 30mm over the hangar

The more fleshed-out FFG-7 impression, circa 1976. Note she now has a 76mm OTO MK75 installed

Laid down at Bath Iron Works in Maine on 12 June 1975 and redesignated as FFG-7 shortly after, launched on 25 September 1976, and commissioned on 17 December 1977, she was the first of 51 completed for the USN while another 16 were built for the navies of Australia, Taiwan, and Spain.

Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate FFG 7 launched in 1976, via Bath

Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate FFG 7 launched in 1976, via Bath

Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigate FFG 7 trials, 1977, via Bath

While OHP herself was decommissioned in 1997 after an almost exactly 20-year career, and scrapped by 2006, a dozen of her younger sisters have been disposed of in assorted SINKEXs and, although gone from U.S. service for a half-decade, the class and subclasses live on with no less than 34 still in some form of active service with eight foreign fleets.

Making it Rain, Guam & Caron edition

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Of the 22 U.S. Navy warships and auxiliaries tasked with supporting Operation Urgent Fury– the invasion of Grenada– some 40 years ago this week, two really stand out, the old ‘phib USS Guam (LPH-9) and the newer Sprucan, USS Caron (DD-970).

Guam gets a big nod, of course, because, of the 116 American servicemen wounded in the four-day operation, Guam treated no less than 77 in her cramped hospital suite after they were medivaced to her deck just offshore.

Speaking of which, Guam was also the main launching/refueling point for the helicopters of the 82nd Airborne and 22nd MAU for the operation and logged a whopping 1,214 launchings and landings in Urgent Fury.

Flight deck crewmen hose down a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter upon its landing aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Guam (LPH 9) during Operation Urgent Fury, October 25, 1983. The helicopter’s engine was hit by anti-aircraft fire on the island of Grenada. JO1 Sundberg. DN-SN-85-02069

Flight operations take place aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Guam (LPH 9) off the coast of Grenada during Operation Urgent Fury. Visible on the flight deck are two UH-1N Iroquois helicopters, a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter, and a CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter. JO1 Sundberg. October 25, 1983. DN-SN-85-02037

But if Guam’s “Grenada Get Away” is largely forgotten, Caron’s is never even mentioned, which is a crying shame.

Commissioned 1 October 1977 at Pascagoula, USS Caron is the only warship ever named for HC3c Wayne Maurice Caron, a MoH recipient who gave his last full measure at age 21 as a corpsman with 3d/7th Marines in Vietnam, mortally wounded while going to save those who needed him.

The destroyer that carried his name lived up to it in Grenada.

As detailed by DANFS:

After embarking Capt. Grant A. Sharp, Commander, DesRon 32, on 19 October 1983, Caron got underway for deployment to the Mediterranean the following day as part of the Independence Battle Group. However, on 21 October, Caron was detached from the battle group and diverted to Grenada at “max speed” in support of Operation Urgent Fury.

As the first U.S. Navy ship to arrive on the scene on 23 October 1983, Caron paused 12 miles off the coast of Grenada to gather intelligence. With the Special Forces amphibious assault on the island already underway, in the early morning hours of 25 October, destroyer Moosbrugger (DD-980) and guided missile frigate Clifton Sprague (FFG-16) joined Caron, and the ships steamed at 25 knots for Point Saline with their arrival planned for daybreak. While advancing toward the island, Caron recovered a small craft with 12 Special Forces troops embarked that had been carried to sea by strong currents. Later in the morning while conducting a search and rescue operation for a downed Bell AH-1T Cobra of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261 near St. George’s Harbor, Caron avoided enemy mortar rounds while operating close to shore.

On the afternoon of the 25th, Caron fired her 5-inch guns towards the site of the communist propaganda station “Radio Free Grenada,” allowing a 12-man Navy Sea, Air and Land (SEAL) team to evade enemy forces surrounding their position there. That night, as fighting continued to rage on the island, Caron responded to a visual signal from shore and rescued ten of the SEALs who had escaped from the radio transmitter site, two of whom had suffered serious injuries. While Caron’s medical staff treated the wounded men, the destroyer directed Sikorsky UH-60 Blackhawks to the beach to rescue the two remaining SEALs from the team. The following evening, the ship also saved 11 U.S. Army Rangers whose helicopter had crashed.

Caron remained on the scene at Grenada through 2 November 1983. During this time, she continued to patrol within range of hostile gunfire, ready to provide naval gunfire support for land and amphibious troops. All told, Caron’s search and rescue efforts saved 41 soldiers and sailors. “Caron demonstrated in a wartime environment what our forces are capable of,” Capt. Sharp remarked, “and the readiness that ‘Can-Do’ Caron is known for.” For her actions in the Grenadian conflict, Caron received the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal.

Artwork: “USS Caron Neutralizes Radio Free Grenada – Beausejour Bay”. by Mike Leahy, via the Naval History and Heritage Command. U.S. Navy Combat Art Center, Washington Navy Yard. U.S. Navy photo by the Navy Audiovisual Center.DN-SC-85-07100.

She would keep her guns blistered in the coming weeks.

Escorting Guam and the 22nd MAU from Grenada to Lebanon, she would be called for NGFS ashore on 8 February 1984, plastering enemy positions with 450 5-inch shells, then follow up on another fire call on 25-26 February, firing 141.

Keep in mind that Spruance-class tin cans only had enough room for about 1,200 rounds of assorted 5-inch in their magazines, if they were fully loaded.

Caron later received the Navy Expeditionary Medal for her service off Lebanon.

As for retirement, Guam decommissioned on 25 August 1998 after 33 years of service and was disposed of in a SINKEX three years later while Caron, decommissioned on 15 October 2001 after just 24 years, would likewise be deep-sixed at the hands of the same Navy she once served so well.

Coasties in New Places…and with new Cutters

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Last week, the 154-foot Sentinel-class fast response cutter USCGC Frederick Hatch (WPC 1143), based in Guam, visited Tacloban in the Philippines on the occasion of the 79th Leyte Gulf Landing Anniversary while the larger frigate-sized USCGC Stratton (WMSL 752) called in Manila.

Hatch is the first of her class to visit the Philippines and will certainly not be the last as the FRCs are sailing far and wide, increasingly roaming around the West Pac. If you are curious, while calling at Tacloban she was 1,300 miles away from home, certainly within range as they have been logging patrols as long as 8,000nm in recent months. 

Colleagues from the Philippine Coast Guard prepare to receive the crew of the USCGC Frederick Hatch (WPC 1143) at the pier in Tacloban, Philippines, on Oct. 19, 2023. In a historic first, the USCGC Frederick Hatch (WPC 1143) visited Tacloban, Philippines, from Oct. 19 to 23, 2023, and the crew conducted engagements marking a significant milestone in the enduring relationship between the United States and the Philippines. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Cmdr. Ryan Crose)

From the CG PAO:

“The expanded capabilities of the Fast Response Cutter represent more than just advanced technology; they symbolize the bridge of cooperation and goodwill between nations. The FRCs and their dedicated crews regularly play a pivotal role in international diplomacy. These vessels, along with their highly trained and professional crews, are ambassadors of peace and collaboration, said Capt. Nick Simmons, commander of U.S. Coast Guard Forces Micronesia/Sector Guam. “They foster understanding and trust across borders, making the seas safer not only for our own nations but for all nations that rely on the freedom of navigation and maritime security.”

Hatch is the 43rd FRC and was commissioned in July 2021, so she is a new hull.

The class has been around since 2012 when the leader, USCGC Bernard C. Webber (WPC 1101) was commissioned and sent to Miami.

Of relevance, the fourth of the class commissioned, USCGC Robert Yeard (WPC 1104) joined the fleet in 2013 and is currently out of the water at the CG Yard in Maryland where she is getting an overhaul, offering some great shots of her hull form.

As detailed by the cutter’s social media page:

Every three years the Yered gets hauled out for some much-needed maintenance including a top-end overhaul of the mains and a full paint job. For the next 140 days, it will be stripped, sprayed, welded, shafts and props dropped replaced, and cleaned. As hard as this ship works and runs, it needs it.

For reference, all of the FRCs are built by Bollinger in New Orleans and the current program of record is 65 hulls, although plans are for at least two to be placed in uncrewed a Recurring Depot Availability Program (RDAP)– otherwise known as “ordinary” back in the day, due to empty billets across the USCG. 

OPC Progress

Meanwhile, the future USCGC Argus (WMSM-915), the lead ship of the Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutter program and the sixth cutter to carry the name, is set to side-launch at Eastern Shipbuilding Group’s Nelson Shipyard near Panama City, Florida on Friday and proceed to finish fitting out in prep for commissioning.

Offshore Patrol Cutter ARGUS in launch position. Photo Eastern Shipbuilding Group

Offshore Patrol Cutter ARGUS in launch position. Photo Eastern Shipbuilding Group

The Heritage class is so-called as they are all to be named for historic cutters, a move I for one support and wish the Navy would take a hint when it comes to naming conventions. For example, the initial cutter Argus was one of the first 10 ships assigned to the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, a predecessor service to the Coast Guard in 1791. Of the 10 original cutters assigned to the RCS, Argus spent the longest time in service. Subsequent cutters Argus were commissioned in 1804, 1809, 1830, and 1850.

Interestingly, the first OPC’s sponsor is not a politician but  Capt. Beverly Kelley, USCG, (Ret). She was the first woman to command an American military vessel when she was piped aboard the 95-foot Cape-class patrol boat USCGC Cape Newagen in 1979.

Kelly, a University of Miami alum who graduated from OCS in 1976, seen on Cape Newagen’s bridge back in the day when the USCG still allowed beards without a profile. She went on to skipper the 270-foot cutter Northland (WMEC-904) as well as the 378-foot cutter Boutwell (WHEC-719) before retiring in 2006, capping a 30-year career that included 18 in sea-going billets.

More on the Heritage (Argus) class

OPC Characteristics:
• Length: 360 feet
• Beam: 54 feet
• Draft: 17 feet
• Sustained Speed: 22 Plus knots
• Range: 8500 Plus nautical miles
• Endurance: 60 Days

The main armament is an Mk 110 57mm gun forward with an MK 38 25mm gun over the stern HH60-sized hangar, and four remote .50 cal mounts. 

I say replace the Mk38 with a C-RAM, shoehorn a towed sonar, ASW tubes, an 8-pack Mk41 VLS crammed with Sea Sparrows, and eight NSSMs aboard, then call it a day.

But no one listens to me…

Current spending on the overbudget and overtime project puts the ships at $704 million per hull. Hopefully, this can be amortized out now that a second yard (Austal in Mobile) is working on the cutters and a big reason why Eastern is so far behind is a mix of teething issues with the brand-new design (in particular non-compliant shafts delivered by Rolls-Royce for the first to hulls) and the 2021-22 supply chain/Covid slow down.

As the OPC program of record is for 25 cutters– replacing the smaller 13-strong Bear class and 16-member Reliance classes of cutters– and, knowing the Coast Guard will be the backbone of the force in blue water for the next 40 years, it is important to get it right.

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