The future USS Iowa (SSN 797) was officially christened by Christie Vilsack, the ship’s sponsor and former first lady of Iowa, during a ceremony at the Electric Boat shipyard facility in Groton, Connecticut last Saturday. She is the 23rd Virginia-class submarine and the 6th advanced Block IV boat of the class.
230617-N-UR986-0140 GROTON, Conn. (June 17, 2023) – Christie Vilsack, sponsor of the pre-commissioning unit (PCU) USS Iowa (SSN 797), christens the ship during a ceremony at General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard facility in Groton, Connecticut , June 17, 2023. Iowa and crew will operate under Submarine Squadron (SUBRON) FOUR
230617-N-UR986-0042 GROTON, Conn. (June 17, 2023) – The crew of the pre-commissioning unit (PCU) USS Iowa (SSN 797), stand in ranks next to their ship during a christening ceremony at General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard facility in Groton, Connecticut, June 17, 2023.
The future USS Iowa (SSN 797) is the fourth U.S. Navy vessel and first submarine named in recognition of the state. Previous ships named after the state were battleships, as well as, a converted merchant ship that was never activated.
Her crest includes BB-61, “The Grey Ghost” that I saw recommission in 1984 as an excited 10-year-old at Pascagoula– and accidentally bumped into then Veep George Bush in a passageway.
The final battleship Iowa decommissioned on 26 October 1990 and her name was stricken from the NVR on 17 March 2006, leaving an almost 16-year gap on the Navy List without the Hawkeye State.
Austal USA in Mobile last week celebrated keel-laying of what likely will be the last Littoral Combat Ship to enter U.S. Navy service, LCS-38. The 19th of the Independence-class LCSs built in Mobile, the angular trimaran is set to become the USS Pierre.
Austal USA
A graphic illustration of the future Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Pierre (LCS 38). (U.S. Navy graphic by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Paul L. Archer/Released)
When commissioned, she will be only the second ship named for the South Dakota city.
The first, the PC-461 Class submarine chaser USS Pierre (PC 1141), while commissioned in 1943, only carried a hull number until 1956 when she picked up her more honorable moniker.
Decommissioned just two years later, she was then stricken and transferred to Indonesia. Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 85158.
Hopefully, the second USS Pierre will have a longer term on the Navy List.
80 years ago today: Casco Bay, Maine, June 1943, a trio of OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes of Observation Squadron Five (VO-5) aboard the battlewagon USS New York (BB-34) while anchored at Casco Bay, Maine on 16 June 1943.
USN Photo via the National Archives
The archives also have two great images of these VO-5 Kings in a take-off in formation on Casco Bay, undoubtedly taken around the same time, although they are for some reason listed as being in May and July respectively, although DANFS does list that New York was at Portland, Maine from 2 May until 27 July 1943 in between the Torch Landings and training “11,000 enlisted men and 750 officers from the Navy, Coast Guard, and Allied navies” prior to D-Day:
Warship Wednesday, June 14, 2023: Shoestring Tin Dragon
U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. NH 60479
Above we see the Wickes (Little)-class four-piper USS Colhoun (Destroyer No. 85) seen wearing her fresh Great War-era Type N-12, Design K, dazzle camouflage, likely in mid-1918. Our tough flush deck would see rough, albeit short, duty in both world wars.
The Wickes
Colhoun was one of the iconic first flights of “Four Piper” destroyers that were designed in 1915-16 with input from no less an authority as Captain (later Admiral) W.S. Sims. Beamy ships with a flush deck and a quartet of boilers (with a smokestack for each) were coupled to a pair of Parsons geared turbines to provide 35.3 knots designed speed– which is still considered fast today, more than a century later.
The teeth of these 314-foot, 1,250-ton greyhounds were four 4-inch/50 cal MK 9 guns and a full dozen 21-inch torpedo tubes.
They reportedly had short legs and were very wet, which made long-range operations a problem, but they gave a good account of themselves. Originally a class of 50 was authorized in 1916, but once the U.S. entered WWI in April 1917, this was soon increased and increased again to some 111 ships built by 1920.
Wickes class USS Yarnall (DD-143): Booklet of General Plans – Inboard Profile / Outboard Profile, June 10, 1918, NARA NAID: 158704871
Wickes class USS Yarnall (DD-143): Booklet of General Plans – Main Deck / 1st Platform Deck / S’ch L’t P’f’m, S’ch L’t Control P’f’m, Fire Control P’f’m Bridge, Galley Top, After Dk. House and 2nd Platform Deck. / June 10, 1918, Hold NARA NAID: 158704873
Wickes class. A close-up of her stern top-down view of plans shows the Wickes class’s primary armament– a dozen torpedo tubes in four turnstiles and stern depth charges.
Of the 111 Wickes completed, there were three subclasses besides the 38 standard-design vessels built at Bath Iron Works, Cramp, Mare Island, and Charleston. Then came the 52 Bethlehem-designed ships built at the company’s Fore River (26 ships) and Union Iron Works (26 ships) led by USS Little, the Newport News-built variants (11 ships) starting with USS Lamberton, and New York Shipbuilding-built variants (10 ships) led by USS Tattnall.
The subclasses were constructed to a slightly different set of plans modified by their respective builders, which made for some downright confusing modifications later. In addition, the Bethlehem-designed Little variants tended to have shorter legs and proved unable to cross the Atlantic in a single hop without stopping in the Azores for refueling or completing an underway replenishment.
Anyway…
Meet Colhoun
Our subject, USS Colhoun, was the first U.S. Navy ship to carry the name of RADM Edmund Ross Colhoun.
Born in 1821 in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Colhoun was appointed a midshipman in 1839 and served with Commodores Conner and Perry, at Alvarado and Tabasco, respectively, during the war with Mexico. Master Colhoun resigned from the Navy in 1853 then returned to service as a Commander in the War Between the States with service in both the North and South Atlantic Blockading Squadrons including as skipper of the gunboats USS Hunchback and USS Ladona, and monitors USS Saugus and USS Weehawken.
He wasn’t a bad sketch artist, either:
Gunboat USS Lodona, sketch by Commander Edmund R. Colhoun, from his letter book of 1865-1885 in the Naval Historical Foundation’s Colhoun Collection. He was Lodona’s Commanding Officer during the Civil War. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, D.C. NH 51415
Post-war, Colhoun went on to command the South Pacific Station and Mare Island Navy Yard then was promoted to an admiral on the Retired List in 1883. He passed in 1897, aged 75, and is buried at Arlington, Section 1, Grave 617.
Laid down by Fore River at Quincy, Massachusetts, on 19 September 1917, USS Colhoun was launched by RADM Colhoun’s granddaughter on 21 February 1918 and commissioned on 13 June 1918– some 105 years ago this week.
In all, her construction only lasted just 268 days, a wonder of wartime shipbuilding.
Destroyer hulls on the building ways at Fore River, 1 October 1917. Those closest to the camera are the future USS Colhoun (DD-85) and Stevens (DD-86), which had builder’s numbers 280 and 281. The ships on the left are probably the future USS Sigourney (DD-81) and Gregory (DD-82). NH 43019
Ships fitting out at the Fore River shipyard, 19 March 1918. The six “Little” Wickes class destroyers are Little (DD-79), Kimberly (DD-80), Sigourney (DD-81), Gregory (DD-82), Colhoun (DD-8,5) and Stevens (DD-86), which had builder’s hull numbers 274-277 and 280-281 respectively. The freighter at right is Katrina Luckenbach, yard hull # 267, which served as USS Katrina Luckenbach in 1918-19. Most of the equipment on the pier is for her. Note the large submarine being built in the background, under the revolving crane. NH 43022
USS Colhoun (Destroyer # 85) in port, circa late 1918 or early 1919. Note her pattern camouflage and the splinter protection mats hung over the face of her bridge. The ship that is partially visible alongside Colhoun’s starboard side appears to be USS Alert (1875-1922). Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2006. NH 104157
Here’s some better details on her camo pattern.
Camouflage Type N-12, Design K plan prepared by the Bureau of Construction and Repair in 1918, for a camouflage scheme for U.S. Navy Flush Deck type destroyers. It shows the ship’s starboard side, bow, set,rn and superstructure ends, and was approved by Naval Constructor John D. Beuret, USN. USS Robinson (Destroyer # 88) is known to have worn this camouflage pattern. USS Colhoun (Destroyer # 85) also appears to have received it. NH 103218
Rushed through construction and further rushed into service, Colhoun was on North Atlantic escort duty just three weeks after she was brought to life, shuttling between New York and European ports, shepherding troopships taking the AEF “Over There” to lick the Kaiser.
USS Colhoun (DD-85) escorting a convoy of troopships, in mid-1918. The two-stack transport beyond her bow is USS Siboney (ID # 2999). Photographed by R. Bowman. Courtesy of Jack L. Howland, 1983. NH 95200
She spent the tail end of 1918 at New London as part of experiments with sound equipment then under development, a job that was interrupted to rush to the rescue of the transport Northern Pacificon New Year’s Day 1919 as she had run aground at Fire Island with a load of Doughboys coming back home. Colhoun embarked 194 of her returning troops and landed them at Hoboken, which was surely a mixed blessing if you have ever been to Hoboken.
USS Colhoun (DD-85) close-up view of the ship’s port side midships area, with her small wartime hull number, probably taken in the Azores circa early 1919. The ship is still painted in World War I dazzle camouflage. Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Library, Treasure Island, California, 1969. NH 67715
Colhoun spent the remainder of 1919 in a series of operations in the Caribbean and off the east coast.
USS Colhoun (DD-85), sans camouflage. Photographed on 15 November 1919. NH 55255
Placed in reduced commission status at Philadelphia Navy Yard on 1 December 1919, Colhoun was given an overhaul and decommissioned there on 28 June 1922, joining almost 100 other tin cans on the yard’s “Red Lead Row” for the next 18 years.
View of part of about 100 U.S. Navy destroyers that saw action in the First World War in storage at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in April 1923. Note that the guns and other vital parts that are exposed to the weather are covered with grease so that the ships could be ready for service at a moment’s notice. When in commission each carried 115 enlisted men and 7 officers. One of the ships identified is USS Ellis (DD-154). NH 69126
Dragon days
While no Wickes were lost to the Germans in 1918, two of the class– USS DeLong and USS Woolsey— were lost while on interbellum service.
Then, with the U.S. Navy having dozens of spare destroyers, especially sticky while trying to lobby Congress for modern new ones (derisively termed “Gold-platers” by salty old destroyerman), no less than 29 often low mileage Wickes tin cans were scrapped or sunk as targets in the 1930s, a few as close to WWII as April 1939. Others were converted just prior to and just after the beginning of the war to fast minelayers (DM) and fast minesweepers (DMS).
Another 27 Wickes class destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy in 1940 as part of the Destroyers-for-bases deal– and seven of these well-used ships later passed on to the Soviets in 1944.
Many of the remaining Wickes in U.S. inventory were soon converted to high-speed amphibious transport (APD).
Such conversions meant landing their 4-inch guns, which went on to equip armed merchant ships, as well as their torpedo tubes. Also leaving were half of their boilers, which dropped their speed down to 25 knots. APDs were given a trio of newer high-angle 3-inch/50 guns, one 40 mm AA gun, and five 20 mm AA guns, and the capability to carry up to 300 Marines or soldiers for a brief period. Where torpedo tubes once were, they now carried four 36-foot LCP landing craft on davits– manned by Coast Guard coxswains.
Once converted, these ships, usually painted in an all-over alligator green scheme, became known as “Green Dragons.”
Colhoun was only the second dragon, picking up the hull number APD-2 on 2 August 1940, while mid-conversion at Norfolk where she had been towed in June. She would be recommissioned on 11 December 1940 and would soon embark on a series of training exercises between Norfolk and the Caribbean.
USS Colhoun (APD-2) February 1942. 80-G-464374
USS Colhoun (APD-2) photographed while tied up to a mooring buoy, circa early 1942. NH 97775
From the same set. Note her pattern camouflage. NH 97776
USS Colhoun (APD-2) photographed in port, circa early 1942. NH 97777
Ringbolt-Shoestring
Within weeks of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent push into the Solomons that followed the Battle of Midway, Colhoun, under the command of T/LCDR George Bernard Madden (USNA 1931) was ordered to sail for the forward Allied staging area in Noumea, French New Caledonia, where she arrived 21 July 1942.
She had been detailed to Operation Ringbolt, the seizure of Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tanambogo islands off the larger Florida island in the Solomon Islands group in parallel to the more complex Watchtower landings across the Sealark Channel to Guadalcanal.
Colhoun, joined by her converted green dragon sisters Gregory (APD-3), Little (APD-4), and McKean (APD-5), would carry Lt. Col. Merritt Edson’s 1st Marine Raider Battalion to Blue Beach as part of Transport Group Yoke on the morning of 7 August.
Port bow view of the high-speed transport USS Colhoun (APD-2) coming alongside the destroyer USS Mugford (DD-389) off Guadalcanal in early August 1942. The Australian War Memorial (P01233.004) contends that this was takeon n 7 August 1942 off Tulagi as she transports elements of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion. This is possibly the last photo taken of the ship. The University of Utah – J. Willard Marriott Library #941326
Then came what has been termed Operation Shoestring, the thin supply line that kept the Marines on Guadalcanal in the fight for the rest of the month.
Just as the Marines’ supply situation became critical, the four fast transports of Transport Division 12 arrived on 15 August, under orders from Vice Admiral Robert Ghormley, the Commander of the South Pacific Area, to make all efforts to keep the Marines supplied. The fast transports (converted World War I destroyers) Colhoun (APD-2), Gregory (APD-3), Little (APD-4), and McKean (APD-5), under the command of Commander Hugh W. Hadley, USN, mostly delivered supplies and gear intended to make Henderson Field operational. The Marines had the benefit of captured Japanese rations, so food was not a critical issue at that point (the four APDs returned on 20 August with rations for the Marines). Another U.S. ship attempting to supply the Marines, the overloaded converted China riverboat Lakotai, capsized and sank all by herself before reaching Guadalcanal.
It was while on Shoestring that Calhoun suffered what Cox described as what “may be the most accurate bombing of a ship by high-altitude horizontal bombing during the war,” when she was hit by at least four bombs dropped by a flight of Japanese twin-engine bombers on 30 August.
Colhoun sank in under two minutes with the loss of over 50 of her crew. Many of her survivors had to swim to shore and for weeks were counted by the Navy as missing in action, although they were among the Marines.
The report of her loss, filed by her skipper, LCDR Madden, while he was recovering on the cargo ship USS Betelgeuse (AKA-11) along with several other wounded members of his crew:
TransDiv12’s days were numbered.
Just five days later, her sisters USS Gregory (DD-82/APD-3) and USS Little (DD-79/APD-4)— luckily just after transferring a Marine Raider Battalion to Savo Island– would be sunk in a one-sided night action with three much stronger Japanese destroyers. Nimitz observed, “Both of these small vessels fought as well as possible against the overwhelming odds … With little means, they performed duties vital to the success of the campaign.”
Meanwhile, the last of the original four green dragons of TransDiv12, USS McKean (DD-90/APD-5), was sunk in November 1943 by a torpedo from a Japanese G4M Betty bomber off Empress Augusta Bay.
Colhoun earned one battle star for her World War II service.
Thomas Crane Public Library. Fore River Shipyard Postcard Collection
As for her Guadalcanal skipper, LCDR Madden earned a Silver Star for his actions on Calhoun. He would go on to command the destroyers USS Williamson (AVD 2), USS Young (DD 580), and USS Shields (DD 596). He retired postwar as a rear admiral.
Besides the ill-fated four DD/APDs of TransDiv12, at least nine other Wickes class destroyers were lost during World War II in U.S. service. The remainder were scrapped between 1945 and 1947.
Today no Wickes-class tin cans survive. The last one afloat, USS Maddox (DD–168), was scrapped in late 1952 after serving in the US, then RN, then Canadian, then Soviet navies.
However, one of the class, USS Walker (DD-163), has been given new life in the excellent alternate history series Destroyermen written by Taylor Anderson.
Meanwhile, the Colhoun name was recycled for a new Fletcher-class destroyer (DD-801) laid down on 3 August 1943 at Seattle, by the Todd Pacific Shipyards. Sponsored by Capt. Kathryn Kurtz Johnson, WAC, a great-grandniece of the ship’s namesake, she commissioned on 8 July 1944.
USS Colhoun (DD-801) lies to in Puget Sound, 21 July 1944, painted in a disruptive three-color camouflage. Official U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships photo 19-N-7125
DD-801’s career would be much shorter than her predecessor, and she was awarded one battle star for her World War II service at Okinawa, where she was sunk as a result of the first heavy kamikaze raid on 6 April 1945. Some 35 members of Colhoun’s crew died and 21 were injured.
USS Colhoun (DD-801) hit by a suicide bomber off Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands. The destroyer is zigzagging at high speed during the attack. Note the oil slick to the left from a bomber shot down by fire from ship and fighter planes. Photographed by USS Anzio (CVE 57) pilot Lieutenant Junior Grade T. N. Banks, April 6, 1945. U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-317257
The Navy has not used the name of RADM Edmund Colhoun since then.
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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80 years ago this month: British and American Navy Forces in Combined Exercises, June 1943, off Scapa Flow. Shown are two very different battlewagons including the brand new SoDak-class fast battleshipUSS Alabama (BB-60) and the King George V-class HMS Anson (79).
Photograph by LT H.A. Hudson. IWM A 17582
The above stems from the efforts of U.S. Navy RADM Olaf Mandt Hustvedt (USNA 1909), a diehard battleship sailor who commanded TF 61 around Alabama and her sister, the recently repaired USS South Dakota, along with the destroyers USS Ellyson (DD-454), Emmons (DD-457, Fitch (DD-462), Macomb (DD-458), and Rodman (DD-456).
TF 61 sailed at varying times with the British ADM Sir Bruce Fraser’s Home Fleet between May and July 1943, typically in the company of HM battleships Anson (79) and Duke of York (17) along with a myriad of RN cruisers and destroyers. This was an effort to backfill the British ships sent to take part in the Husky landings in the Med.
USS Alabama BB-60 and HMS Anson (79) exercises off Scapa Flow June 1943 IWM Hudson, F A (Lt) b
USS Alabama BB-60 and HMS Anson (79) exercises off Scapa Flow June 1943 IWM Hudson, F A (Lt)
The force took part in a series of relatively bloodless missions including Operation Gearbox III, the relief of the Anglo-Norwegian garrison of Spitzbergen, and Operations Camera/Governor, demonstrations off the Norwegian coast to divert German attention from the Husky landings in July 1943.
South Dakota, Ellyson, Emmons, Fitch, Macomb, and Rodman arrived back in Norfolk on 1 August 1943, while Alabama reached Norfolk eight days later. They would soon sortie to the Pacific for a much more active role in the war.
As for Hustvedt, he went on to command Battleship Division 7 on the push to Tokyo and would retire as a Vice Admiral in 1946, capping 37 years of service. For his operations with Sir Bruce, he would be invested as a Knight Commander Order of the British Empire.
Above we see a fantastic original Kodachrome from 80 years ago of a female shipyard worker at Electric Boat in New London with an acetylene torch near the forward escape hatch of a building Gato-class submarine. Inscribed on the hatch is the hull number SS-243, making this the future USS Bream.
A couple of other great shots from that day, seemingly centered on the rear hatch:
About the Gatos
One of the 77 Gatos cranked out by four shipyards from 1940 to 1944 for the U.S. Navy, they were impressive 311-foot long fleet boats, diesel-electric submarines capable of extended operations in the far reaches of the Pacific.
Able to swim an impressive 11,000 nautical miles on their economical power plant while still having room for 24 (often cranky) torpedoes. A 3-inch deck gun served for surface action in poking holes in vessels deemed not worth a torpedo while a few .50 and .30-cal machine guns provided the illusion of an anti-aircraft armament.
A development of the Tambor-class submarines, they were the first fleet boats able to plumb to 300 feet test depth, then the deepest that U.S. Navy submersibles were rated.
Meet Bream
Our subject, Bream, was the only U.S. Navy ship to carry the name of the “A common food and game fish of the carp family typically found in lakes and slow rivers,” as noted by DANFS.
USS Bream (SS 243), insignia, showing a fish nipping a horned Japanese admiral. Photographed by Lieutenant Commander Charles Jacobs, USN, on 14 August 1943, at her builder’s yard, the Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut. National Archives photograph: 80-G-468313.
Built by Electric Boat Co. of Groton, Connecticut, she commissioned on 24 January 1944, one of the staggering 74 submarines and 398 PT boats EB made for Uncle during WWII.
Her first skipper was LCDR Wreford Goss “Moon” Chapple (USNA 1930), a former heavyweight boxing champion at Annapolis who had already earned two Navy Crosses and two Silver Stars in command of the submarines USS S-38 and USS Permit.
To tell you a bit about Chapple, he was officially reprimanded in February 1942 for bringing 40 officers and men out of besieged Corregidor, pulled on the carpet because of the gross overcrowding on his little boat. Here, he is seen with his wife, Mrs. Chapple, who was the boat’s sponsor, and son, at Bream’s christening. (EBCo Photo)
Following shakedown and exercises on the East Coast and off Panama, Bream crossed “The Ditch” into the Pacific in April 1944 then made for Seeadler Harbor in the Admiralties by way of Australia.
From Seeadler, she put to sea on 29 May for her 1st War Patrol, loaded with Mark 23 torpedoes for the Morotai Strait.
Chasing down contacts and avoiding Japanese sub busters, she made two unsuccessful attacks on passing convoys in early June before hitting paydirt on 16 June when she torpedoed and sank the Japanese army cargo ships Yuki Maru (5704 GRT) and Hinode Maru (1916 GRT) off Halmahera Island. Bream promptly got 25 depth charges dropped on her roof in exchange.
From her patrol report:
Bream ended her 1st War Patrol at Manus on 29 June then put back out for an unsuccessful 2nd War Patrol, south of the Philippines, three weeks later that ended in early September with a return to Australia.
Her 3rd War Patrol would be much more fruitful.
Heading out on 2 October, Moon, besides his command on Bream, was commander for a submarine “search and attack group” (Yankee wolfpack) consisting of USS Raton (SS-270) and USS Guitarro (SS-363), bound for a patrol in the central Philippines, where they would be joined briefly by USS Ray (SS-271).
On the 23rd, Bream torpedoed and damaged the 9,000-ton Japanese heavy cruiser Aoba off Manila Bay, with one of six torpedoes hitting the warship’s No. 2 engine room. In return, the cruiser’s escorts dropped 32 depth charges on our boat.
From Bream’s patrol report:
The heavily damaged Japanese cruiser Aoba
Aoba limped into Cavite Navy Yard near Manila for emergency repairs. She would eventually make it back, slowly, to Kure but her damage was deemed irreparable and she never sailed again. Related to a floating AAA battery, Aoba was later sent to the bottom there at the hands of TF 38 carrier aircraft.
On 24 October, Bream ran across floating debris that included several dead bodies (listed by Moon as “non-survivors”) and six Japanese who they took prisoner after one sailor, White, “showed unusual solicitude in diving overboard to retrieve one who slipped back into the water.”
From her patrol report:
These EPOWs were quartered in the forward torpedo room and then transferred to Australia-bound sister USS Cod (SS-224) five days later, with Moon noting in his ship’s log “Cod was not too crazy about the Japs.”
Then, on 4 November, the Bream-Guitarro-Ray wolfpack shared the sinking of the Japanese seaplane tender/transport Kagu Maru (6806 GRT), picked off from convoy TAMA-31A off Dasol Bay, Philippines. The poor Kagu Maru, carrying troops of the 218th Naval Construction Unit, had no chance, being hit by one of four torpedoes from Bream, then one of eight torpedoes from Guitarro, and finally two of two from Ray in a third attack.
During the November 4 attack, Bream was also attacked by a Japanese plane, which dropped two bombs that resulted in a near miss that nonetheless caused some flooding and damage to our boat.
From her patrol report:
Two days later, on 6 November, the pack found the Japanese heavy cruiser Kumano west of Lingayen.
From her patrol report:
Japanese heavy cruiser Kumano anchored at Rabaul, with a Mitsubishi F1M Pete reconnaissance seaplane in the foreground, December 4-5, 1942
Part of the cover force for convoy MATA-31, Kumano had narrowly avoided the submarine USS Batfish the day prior but, out of a staggering 23 torpedoes fired from the Bream-Guitarro-Ray-Raton wolfpack, two made good, blowing off the cruiser’s bow section and flooding all her engine rooms. Dead in the water, Kumano had to be towed into Dasol Bay with an 11-degree list. Towed from there to Santa Cruz harbor, she was found still under repair on 25 November by aircraft from the carrier USS Ticonderoga and bombed to the bottom of the harbor.
By that time, Bream’s submariners were already throwing back a cold one in Australia and returned home early.
Her third patrol ended after just 52 days (35 submerged), with Bream traveling 10,833 miles. Her primary reason for calling it quits early was that she only had three torpedoes left. It would be her most successful patrol.
There, plankowner skipper Moon Chapple was pulled from his boat, given a Gold Star in lieu of the Second Silver Star Medal, and sent back to New London to become a tactics instructor at the Submarine School, replaced by LCDR James Lowell Page McCallum.
Targets thinned out notably by this stage of the war, with most subs managing only to bag the occasional coaster or trawler via surface action as the small fry wasn’t worth wasting a torpedo on. For instance, Bream on 14 March 1945 bagged the auxiliary submarine chaser Keihin Maru (76 GRT) in a surface action in the Java Sea, while on her 5th War Patrol, after adding no tonnage on her 4th Patrol in early 1945.
An extensive depth charging in March that cut her 5th Patrol short led to the submarine’s periscopes, her starboard shaft, and both of her screws being replaced in Freemantle, a patch job that was done in three weeks. She was thought capable of another patrol and sortied out on 20 April.
On her 6th War Patrol, Bream came across the German minesweeper/submarine depot ship Quito (1230 GRT) off Borneo’s Tanjong Puttion on 29 April, just a week away from VE Day. Loaded with fuel for Monsoon U-boats, she had been steaming from the oil fields of Balikpapan for Jakarta, and, with her daily position reports intercepted by the Navy’s FRUMEL unit in Melbourne, she was never going to make it.
From her patrol report:
The next day, a severely burned survivor from Quito, picked up by the submarine USS Besugo (SS-321), passed on the identity of the fireball that Bream had sent to the bottom.
Later on the same patrol, Bream was given orders to recon the anchorage at Miri in Japanese-occupied Borneo, where she found no shipping but was spotted by a passing American B-24 who got overly excited. As noted in her war history, “USS Bream made the big time on the 22nd when a U.S. Army plane reported her as a carrier, but still no targets. No flight pay either.”
She was also pressed into duty as a minelayer, sowing 23 Mark 12 mines off Pulo Ob in the Gulf of Siam on 8-9 May. Ironically, she would have to get really involved in navigating such fields directly after.
While on lifeguard duty in the Philippines in late May, she picked up the pilot of a downed USAAF P-51 Mustang on the 19th “after barreling through a minefield at four main engine speed,” then negotiated a different minefield on the 26th to pluck four survivors of a downed B-25 bomber from the water. The patrol report noted, “We are mighty ready to get these boys but wish they wouldn’t pick the minefields to ditch in.”
After 18 months and six hard charging patrols, during which she received rail cars full of depth charges and at least two air-dropped bombs, Bream was in need of refit and left Saipan in June 1945 for Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard at San Francisco.
She stopped off at Pearl on the way and a series of photos, taken by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, likely stationed ashore rather than part of her crew, were taken. It is rare that images of wartime Gatos exist, and these are some of the best, despite their poor condition.
USS Bream (SS 243) entering Pearl Harbor after a successful war patrol. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-325193
USS Bream (SS 243) entering Pearl Harbor after a successful war patrol. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-325192
Note her rough appearance. Hard to believe she is only been in the fleet for 18 months at the time this image was snapped. This is a fighting submarine! USS Bream (SS 243) entering Pearl Harbor after a successful war patrol. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. The two large ships directly behind the sub at the center of the photo are both later Baltimore class cruisers.
USS Bream (SS 243) entering Pearl Harbor after a successful war patrol. View of the conning tower. Note her homeward-bound pennant and mounted Oerlikons. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-325197
At the Pearl Harbor submarine base, crew members touch up the rusted areas on USS Bream (SS 243), which has just completed a successful war patrol. Note her 5″/25. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-325172
Another great view of the 5″/25. At the Pearl Harbor submarine base, crew members touch up the rusted areas on USS Bream (SS 243), which has just completed a successful war patrol. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-325173
USS Bream (SS 243). Crew members inside torpedo tube. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-325176
USS Bream (SS 243). Crew members in engine room spaces. Note the “patrol beard” and the snipe chewing a cigar. Talk about old-school Navy! Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-325181
In true Navy tradition, shipmates of John O. Tibs toss him overboard from USS Bream (SS 243) at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on his promotion to Chief Machinist’s Mate. Photographed by Photographer’s Mate First Class L. Strawger, 15 June 1945. 80-G-495544
Bream was in San Francisco on VJ Day. Following her refit, she was decommissioned there on 31 January 1946 and was placed in reserve.
Bream earned four battle stars for her World War II service.
Cold War
After five years in mothballs, war came again and Bream was dusted off for Korea, then, along with six other sisters– USS Angler (SS-240), USS Grouper (SS-214), USS Bashaw (SS-241), USS Bluegill (SS-242), USS Cavalla (SS-244), and USS Croaker (SS-246), she was selected to become a submarine hunter-killer (SSK) via an SCB 58 conversion, sometimes called a “Grouper conversion” after the first boat that underwent the transition from fleet boat to SSK.
Comparing Fleet Boat Gato to SSK Gato. Forgive the bend in the page. The SSK conversion did not have that crazy hull deformity
As noted by DANFS:
As a part of the Navy’s fleet expansion program in response to the communist invasion of the Republic of Korea, Bream was recommissioned on 5 June 1951 and reported to Submarine Squadron 3, Pacific Fleet. From June 1951 until August 1952, she was engaged in type training and provided services to the Fleet Sonar School at San Diego. She was decommissioned once again on 10 September 1952 to undergo conversion to an antisubmarine “killer” submarine at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard.
The conversion included the installation of a snorkel, which enabled her to take in air and operate her diesel engines while submerged. In addition, her conning tower was streamlined, the habitability of the crew’s living spaces was improved, and special sonar listening equipment was installed. The warship was redesignated SSK-243 in February 1953. Bream was placed back in commission on 20 June 1953.
USS Bream (SSK-243) photographed during the 1950s. Description: Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN (MSC), 1974. Catalog #: NH 78980
USS Bream (SS-243) USN 1042361
Our new SSK would spend the next decade on a series of training, exercises, antisubmarine warfare tactical development duty, and West Pac cruises. Shifting her homeport to Pearl Harbor in 1956, she roamed the largest ocean Pacific spanning from Adak, Alaska to Aukland, New Zealand, and from Hong Kong to Pago Pago, notably spending both Christmas Day 1957 and 1962 in Yokosuka.
Bream (SS-243) is seen here on 1 January 1962 off the coast of Hawaii. The fairwater has been streamlined and all guns removed. Also, she has been fitted with an enlarged sonar dome on her bow. USN Archives photo # USN-1039531 courtesy of All Hands magazine by the Naval Historical Center, April 2002, pg. 47 & submitted by Bill Gonyo. Text courtesy of The Floating Drydock, Fleet Subs of WW II” by Thomas F. Walkowiak.
In April 1964, Bream was reclassified as an auxiliary submarine (AGSS-243), as were most of her remaining sisters still in U.S. Navy in service, and switched primarily from duty as a warfighting submarine to a training boat, largely in conjunction with ASW assets such as destroyers and patrol aircraft as an OPFOR. This included a trip to Vietnam in late 1965 as well as three extended WestPac deployments to perform the same services to allies in the South Korean, Taiwanese, and Philippine fleets.
Bream (AGSS-243) underway in the Pacific in the late 1960s, via Navsource.
With time not kind to these old WWII-era diesel boats, and the Navy desperately wanting to be SSN-only, Bream was slated to decommission in 1969. On 28 June, she and four sisters– USS Bluegill (AGSS 242), 1944 Wolfpack pal USS Raton (AGSS 270), USS Tunny (AGSS 282), and USS Charr (AGSS 328), were decommissioned on the same day.
Raton (AGSS-270) and Bluegill (AGSS-242) during the decommissioning ceremony at Mare Island on 28 June 1969. Bream (AGSS-243), Tunny (AGS-282) and Charr (AGSS-328) are forward of Raton and Bluegill. Chara (AE-31) is in the background. Photo courtesy of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum via Darryl L. Baker. Via Navsource.
In a fitting allegory that there would be no going back for these old “smoke boats,” Bream was struck from the Naval Register and sunk as a target, on 7 November 1969, sent to the bottom in tests of the new Mk48 heavyweight torpedo by the Skipjack-class nuclear-powered submarine USS Sculpin (SSN 590).
Her battle flag is one of 49 preserved in the Submarine Force Library and Museum and is certainly colorful.
Note her six service stripes for her patrols, the minelaying flag, the Swazi for the German ship Quito, two rising suns for the two Japanese cruisers she accounted for, and the lifeguard flag for the five Army aviators she plucked from the Japanese minefields off Takao in the PI. Note that she is seen sailing into the setting sun. She had a busy 18 months.
As for her WWII skipper, “Moon” Chapple commanded the heavy cruiser USS Pittsburgh in the Korean War and would go on to retire as a rear admiral in 1959. He died in 1991, aged 83.
USS Bream, docked at Pearl Harbor, photo by Bob Droke
As for her sisters, other Gatos lived on, although an amazing 20 were lost in the Pacific during WWII. The last two Gato-class boats active in the US Navy were USS Rock (SS-274) and Bashaw (SS-241), which were both decommissioned on 13 September 1969 and sold for scrap. Nine went to overseas allies with the last, USS Guitarro (SS-363) serving the Turkish Navy as TCG Preveze (S 340) in one form or another until 1983.
A full half-dozen Gatos are preserved in the U.S. so please visit them when you can:
USS Cavalla is at Seawolf Park near Galveston, Texas
USS Cobia is at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin
USS Cod is on display in Cleveland
USS Croaker is on display in Buffalo, New York
USS Drum is on display on shore at Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama
USS Silversides is on display in Muskegon, Michigan
Two of these, Cavalla and Croaker, are rare SSK Gato conversions, like Bream, while Cod and our boat were liked via the POW incident.
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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Comparatively, the Chinese have an active offensive mining development program counting an estimated 80,000 devices consisting of up to 30 types, including encapsulated torpedo mines and rising mines.
This comes as the Vigilance Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV), pitched by VARD for the Royal Canadian Navy’s future fleet, was shown off at CANSEC 2023, complete with a stern Cube modular minelaying system installed.
Vigilance Class Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) with The Cube System
The system uses 40-foot containers for a wholly “bolt-on” minelaying option
A digital mockup of the Cube minelaying system on HMS Tamar, another small OPV currently in the Pacific.
Suffice it to say, these could fit inside the open below-deck mission bay of the Independence-class LCS– here seen on USS Cincinnati (LCS-20)– while still leaving the helicopter deck and hangar free.(Photo: Chris Eger)
Meanwhile, here in the States, the Air Force is working on a program for a single B-52 to drop a dozen 2,000-pound mines from a distance of 40 miles off, one that could be very useful in the Pacific one day.
An inert Joint Direct Attack Munition QuickStrike Extended Range mine is attached to a U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress assigned to the 49th Test and Evaluation Squadron, Barksdale Air Force Base, La., in early March 2023. (U.S. Air Force courtesy photo 230524-F-AA323-1002)
A B-52H Stratofortress attached to the 49th Test and Evaluation Squadron validated the ability to deploy inert Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) QuickStrike Extended Range (QS-ER) mines from a standoff distance of more than 40 miles off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in early March 2023.
The QS-ER mine marries the concept of a Mk64 underwater mine to that of the GBU-64v1 JDAM Extended Range variant. The resulting weapon is the 2,000-pound QS-ER mine.
Traditionally mines are employed as unguided gravity weapons, forcing the aircraft to fly at lower altitudes and releasing the mines at multiple intervals rather than single releases. This means the mission cannot be accomplished in a contested waterway without accepting a high level of risk. But the QS-ER program changes this concept completely.
Allied warships of Bombarding Force C, which supported the landings in the Omaha Beach area on June 6, 1944. The column is led by USS Texas (Battleship No. 35) (left), still with her 1930s mast houses, with the British Town-class light cruiser HMS Glasgow (C21), USS Arkansas (Battleship No. 33), Free French cruisers George Leygues and Montcalm following. The picture was taken from the Captain-class frigate/Buckley-class destroyer escort HMS Holmes (K581).
IWM – McNeill, M H A (Lt) Photographer
The Texas group would provide gunfire to open Dog one exit in Vierville-sur-Mer and support the Rangers attempting to destroy enemy guns at Pointe du Hoc, and remain offshore for the next ten days until the battle moved inland.
D-Day Map showing Firing Plan from USS Texas (BB-35) NHHC_1969-232-A_full
By the 15th, Texas had to flood compartments to create a list, upping the elevation of her guns enough to make the German lines near Isigny and Carentan.
However, that didn’t put the old American Great War-era dreadnought on the sidelines, as both Texas and Arkansas would steam to the Med where they bombarded the French Riviera during the Dragoon landings (Texas sent another 172 rounds of 14-inch and 171 of 3-inch into the Old Republic that August) and then to Iwo Jima (where Texas fired 923 rounds of 14-inch and 967 of 5-inch between 16 and 21 February 1945) and spend seven weeks in March and April off Okinawa (Texas: 2,019 14-inch, 2,640 5-inch, 490 3-inch, 3,100 40mm and 2,275 20mm rounds against air and shore targets).
After what must have been a staggering yard period for the crew, the sixth Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS George Washington (CVN 73), has finally been redelivered to the Navy after 2,120 days at Newport News, wrapping up its mid-life refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH). Importantly, the carrier also now has new C4ISR systems, radars, and upgrades for full F-35 capability.
The RCOH represents 35 percent of all maintenance and modernization in an aircraft carrier’s service life and GW was pulled offline in 2017 originally for what was scheduled to be a four-year yard event, which ran seven due to COVID, “supply chain issues” and the like.
NNS made sure to work in a victory lap, because, well, at least it’s over.
“Redelivering George Washington to the Navy is the end result of incredible teamwork between our shipbuilders, the CVN 73 crew, our government partners, and all of our suppliers,” said Todd West, NNS vice president, of in-service aircraft carrier programs. “George Washington has gone through a transformation and now returns to the fleet as a fully recapitalized ship, ready to support any mission and serve our nation for another 25 years.”
The flagship USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) transits the Oslo fjord for its first port call in Oslo, Norway, May 24, 2023. Gerald R. Ford is the first U.S. aircraft carrier to pull into Norway in more than 65 years. (US Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Brian Glunt) Released.
This meant a round of community relations events and the opportunity to visit popular cultural and historical landmarks in Oslo, including the WWII War Sailors Monument near Akershus fortress.
They also got in some work with Standing NATO Maritime Group 1. Besides CVN-78, the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group consists of Carrier Strike Group 12, Carrier Air Wing 8, Destroyer Squadron 2, USS Normandy (CG 60), USS McFaul (DDG 74), USS Ramage (DDG 61) and USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116).
The video, which shows a roughly 10,000-ton ish LPH-style vessel complete with a ski-jump and what looks like MQ-9B STOL drones, will be minimally manned but outfitted to launch and recover dozens of AUV, UUV, and USVs of assorted types along with helicopters and OTH-capable small boats. This is likely the future face of expeditionary naval aviation.
Speaking of which, the U.S. Navy just announced the first four “air vehicle pilots” completed flight training and earned their wings during a ceremony aboard NAS Pensacola on 25 May.
The four AVPs were winged at the National Naval Aviation Museum alongside a graduating class of Naval Flight Officers (NFO). The AVPs are the first service members authorized to wear the AVP warfare device.
The AVP warfare device is similar to traditional Naval Aviator wings but with an inverted delta displayed on a shield centered on two crossed anchors and flanked by wings. Service members qualified to wear this device will belong to a new community of aviation professionals who operate the MQ-25 Stingray and future UAVs. (Navy Photo by Ensign Elias Kaser).
Above we see a great 1968 image of the Edsall-class destroyer escort-turned-radar picket, USS Falgout (DER-324) with a bone in her teeth during a Westpac deployment. Some 25 years old at the time, of note her christening occurred 80 years ago this week.
A vessel that saw combat against the Germans while on convoy duty during WWII, she would continue to serve in Korea and as a Cold Warrior, seeing the atomic starburst no less than nine times.
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 (DE-401) commissioned 18 January 1944– in all some four score ships built in 19 months. The Arsenal of Democracy at work–building tin cans faster than the U-boats and Kamikazes could send them to Davy Jones.
The U.S. Navy destroyer escort USS Edsall (DE-129) underway near Ambrose Light just outside New York Harbor on 25 February 1945. The photo was taken by a blimp from squadron ZP-12. Edsall is painted in Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D. U.S. Navy photo 80-G-306257
These 1,590-ton expendable escorts were based on their predecessors, the very successful Cannon-class boats but used an FMR type (Fairbanks-Morse reduction-geared diesel drive) propulsion suite whereas the only slightly less prolific Cannons used a DET (Diesel Electric Tandem) drive. Apples to oranges.
Armed with enough popguns (3×3″/50s, 2x40mm, 8x20mm) to keep aircraft and small craft at bay, they could plug a torpedo into a passing enemy cruiser from one of their trio of above-deck 21-inch tubes, or maul a submarine with any number of ASW weapons including depth charges and Hedgehogs. Too slow for active fleet operations (21 knots) they were designed for coastal patrol (could float in just 125 inches of seawater), sub-chasing, and convoy escorts.
Meet Falgout
The hero of our story, USS Falgout, is the only ship named for Seaman 2c George Irvin Falgout, a resident of Raceland, Louisiana who was a posthumous recipient of the Navy Cros for his actions while serving on the heavily damaged cruiser, USS San Francisco (CA-38) at Guadalcanal in November 1942. Falgout reportedly “remained at his gun, blazing away at a Japanese aircraft until it crashed his station.”
His citation:
The only ship named in his honor was constructed by Consolidated Steel Corp, Ltd., Orange, Texas (all the Edsalls were built at one of two Texas Gulf Coast yards) and sponsored at launch by his sister, Mrs. H. J. Guidry. She was commissioned on 15 November 1943 with an all-Coast Guard crew under CDR Henry A Meyer, a Coast Guard regular who earned his first thin gold stripe in 1931.
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:
These ships were soon facing off with the Germans in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
Following shakedown along the East Coast and the Caribbean– where Falgout picked up 11 survivors from the American tanker Touchet that was torpedoed and sunk on 3 December 1943 by German U-boat U-193— our new destroyer escort was bound for the Med in February 1944 as part of the escort of Convoy UGS 32 to Casablanca, and returned to New York with GUS 31.
Then came Convoy UGS 38 out of Hampton Roads to Bizerte in Tunisia in April. This crossing proved much more contentious and suffered from German air attacks by waves of Junkers and Heinkel bombers with the Benson-class destroyer USS Landsdale (DD-426) sunk after hits from torpedo-carrying Ju 88s on the night of the 20th. Falgout expended no less than 600 rounds of 20mm and 16 rounds of 40mm on bombers that came close enough to swat.
While on the next homeward bound convoy, GUS 39, Falgout’s sistership USS Menges (DE 320), was hit by a G7es acoustic torpedo from U-371 on 3 May. The German fish destroyed a third of the tin can, and created casualties of a third of the ship’s crew but would amazingly survive the war. Just two nights later, the Buckley-class destroyer escort USS Fechteler (DE-157), would be sunk near Falgout by German submarine U-967, with the bulk of the crew rescued.
Not all the Coast Guard-manned DEs would come through to VE-Day. USS Leopold (DE-319) of CortDiv 22 was torpedoed by U-255 and later sank in the North Atlantic, 400 miles south of Iceland on 10 March 1944, with a loss of 13 officers and 158 men. Two other classmates with Navy crews, USS Frederick C. Davis (DE-136) and USS Fiske (DE-143), would also be lost in the Atlantic to U-boats.
Falgout would make two further roundtrips to Bizerte and back followed by three to Oran and back, although not coming as close to death as on UGS 38/GUS 39. Notably, however, she did pluck four Ju88 crewmembers from the water following a raid on GUS 45 in July 1944.
USS HAMUL (AD-20) Caption: At Bermuda in early 1944, while serving as flagship of the DD-DE shakedown group (CTG-23.1). Alongside are: CALCATERA (DE-390), PRIDE (DE-323), FALGOUT (DE-324), ALGER (DE-101), and EICHENBERGER (DE-202). Description: Collection of Captain D.L. Madeira, 1978. Catalog #: NH 86271
She was in Oran when the news of the German surrender was received.
Her final WWII skipper was a young LCDR Henry C Keene, Jr.,(USCGA 1941), who had been aboard the Treasury-class cutter USCGC Bibb (WPG-31) earlier in the war when that vessel plucked 235 survivors (and a dog) from U-boat-infested waters in the North Atlantic. Keene would later retire in 1965 as commander of Ketchikan CG Base and go on to be a noted Superior Court judge in Alaska. Meanwhile, the good CDR Meyer, who was the greyhound’s first commander, would continue his career with the Coast Guard for at least until 1956, retiring sometime later as a full captain.
For her 14 convoys, Falgout received one battle star for her wartime service, her only casualty being EM3c James G. O’Brien who died in a 1944 accident while on libo in Casablanca, falling from a second-story window.
After limited post-war service, during which she spent most of 1946 “in commission, in reserve” in Charleston with a caretaker crew (the USCG was returned to the Treasury Department in December 1945, and most of its wartime personnel discharged and Navy-owned ships returned) Falgout was classified “out of commission, in reserve” 18 April 1947 and lowered her flag.
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, therefore, our vessel went from USS Falgout (DE-324) to USCGC Falgout (WDE-424).
Falgout’s sister, the Edsall-class USS Durant (DE-389/WDE-489/DER-389) in her Coast Guard livery. Note the WWII AAA suite is still intact. Falgout carried the same white and buff scheme.
Falgout was on loan to the Coast Guard between 24 August 1951– the second Edsall so converted– and 21 May 1954, in commission for duty as an ocean station vessel out of Tacoma, Washington.
Schenia notes that she pulled eight patrols in this period including two on OS Queen, two on OS Sugar, one on OS Nan, and two on OS Victor in addition to serving as the policing cutter for the International Cruiser Race Regatta in British Columbia in 1952 and the Lake Washington Gold Cup Race in 1953.
Besides nine Edsalls, two similarly loaned ex-Navy seaplane tenders, two 180-foot buoy tenders, and nine existing 255-foot/327-foot Coast Guard cutters also clocked in on Pacific Ocean station detail, with a total of 22 vessels and their crews earning the Korean Service Medal during the conflict. The Pacific Ocean station cutters in all assisted over 20 merchant and Navy vessels in distress, including one transoceanic airliner during the war.
The USCG-manned Edsalls were all retrograded to the Navy in 1954, with the last, Chambers, striking 30 July. It turned out that the Navy had other plans for these humble vessels, now double war vets.
DER
Falgout, laid back up after her 32 months of USCG service during Korea, was picked to become a radar picket ship, and given a new lease on life, reclassified into the Navy at Mare Island on 28 October 1954 as DER-324.
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 (including Falgout) 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 Falgout 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 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
Her conversion complete, Falgout was recommissioned on 30 June 1955.
30 June 1955: Mare Island NSY, Vallejo, Cal. – Radm. Frederick L. Entwistle, USN (Commander, Mare Island Naval Shipyard) is commissioning speaker at the ceremony marking USS Falgout’s re-commissioning. Lcdr. Walter P. Smiley is on the far right of the photo. (U.S. Navy photo #DER-324-063055-1TH) via Darryl Baker, Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum, via Navsource.
30 June 1955: Mare Island NSY, Vallejo, Cal. – Colors are raised aboard USS Falgout at Mare Island after her conversion at the shipyard. (U.S. Navy photo #DER-324-063055-3TH) via Darryl Baker, Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum, via Navsource.
She was assigned to Seattle as a homeport, with orders coming from the Continental Air Defense Command, heading out to serve regular radar picket in the Early Warning System.
USS Falgout (DER 324) underway
In March 1959, this changed to duty out of Pearl Harbor.
On 31 January 1961, she received her 10th skipper, LCDR Samuel Lee Gravely Jr., a mustang who enlisted in 1942 and went through NROTC in 1944 to earn his commission. Gravely had previously served on USS PC-1264 in WWII, then aboard the battleship USS Iowa during Korea and the cruiser USS Toledo (CA-133), and served as executive officer and acting commander of the destroyer USS Theodore E. Chandler (DD-717) immediately before taking command of Falgout. This act, noted by the NHHC, put Gravely as the first African-American to command a combat ship.
Dominic
In late 1962, Falgout, with Gravely as skipper, was detailed to Joint Task Force 8, operating out of Pearl Harbor, for Operation Dominic.
Sparked by the Soviet resumption of nuclear testing after the 1958–1961 moratorium, Dominic would see no less than 31 air dropped, high-altitude rocket, parachuted, and underwater tests of prototype and existing weapons (including the first Polaris SLBM war shot) carried out over the Eastern Pacific spanning from the coast of California to Christmas and Johnston Island.
Falgout would closely participate (sometimes within 90 miles of the detonation) in at least nine of these tests, all off Johnston Island as part of TU 8.3.6, while she would be a more distant weather ship (over 500 miles away) for much of the remainder of the other tests, in the latter tasked with chasing off Soviet spy trawlers.
The Defense Nuclear Agency’s 432-page report on Operation Dominic I compiled in 1983, has the below rundown of Falgout’s nine hottest experiences:
Notably, of the more than 80 Army, Navy, and Coast Guard vessels that took part in or supported Dominic I, only 16, Falgout included, had personnel with “suspect” radiological film badges.
And the detonation maps for Tightrope (Operation Fishbowl, less than 20 kt), Housatonic (9.96 Mt), Calamity (800 Kt), Chama (1.6 Mt), and Bumping (11.3 Kt):
Dominic Chama blast, 18 October. B-52 Airdrop; 11,970 Feet detonation. This was a free-fall LASL test of the Thumbelina device in an Mk-36 drop case.
Another shot of Chama. This was a test of a lightweight small-diameter device, possibly a replacement for the W-38 (the 2-4 Mt warhead for the Atlas and Titan I missiles). The results are variously described as “thoroughly successful” while the yield was reported to be below the predicted value.
Tightrope. Nike Hercules Missile Airburst; 69,000 Feet. Carrying the LASL-designed W-31 air defense warhead.
Continued service
Brushing the dust off Dominic off her decks, Falgout would continue to be based out of Pearl for the rest of the decade.
USS Falgout (DER 324) at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, June 1963
DE-397 Wilhoite Feb 1966 Pearl Harbor with Falgout DER 324
From 1966 to 1969 Falgout rotated to service along the coast of Vietnam where she served in Operation Market Time, attempting to interdict Viet Cong maritime traffic. This would include the TEE SHOT V operation which saw our tin can serve as a mother ship in Qui Nhon Bay to two 50-foot PCFs including berthing for two spare PCF crews.
A stalwart of the Brown Water Navy in Vietnam: the PCF. Here, PCF-94 of Coastal Division 11in the Gulf of Thailand, March 1968. USN 1130655
As detailed by NHHC, TEE SHOT V “was established in the coastal area from Dong Phu village south to Chanh Oai village to detect and capture or destroy any hostile craft attempting to exfiltrate the area…During the operation a total of 2,448 junks were detected, 1,210 inspected and 484 boarded. Twenty-three persons and six junks with a total of seventeen tons of salt were apprehended and delivered to VNN authorities.”
On 10 October 1969, Falgout was decommissioned at Mare Island after just over 14 years of service to the Navy and four to the USCG under Navy orders. Her fellow DERs shared a similar fate, either laid up in mothballs or transferred to overseas allies.
USS Falgout and Canberra laid up at Stockton, California on 20 May 1972. The bow of USS Canberra (CA-70) is visible astern. Probably photographed by Ted Stone. Courtesy of Ted Stone, 1980. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 90588
1973 Janes on the Edsall class DERs.
On 1 June 1975, Falgout was struck from the NVR then in early 1977 was towed out to sea off the coast of California and sunk as a target.
Epilogue
Few relics of Falgout remain, although much of her deck logs and WWII war history is digitized in the National Archives.
As for LCDR Gravely, once he left Falgout in 1963, he went on to complete 38 years of service, command USS Taussig (DD-746), USS Jouett (DLG-29), Naval Communications Command, Cruiser-Destroyer Group Two, the Eleventh Naval District, Third Fleet, and the Defense Communications Agency.
In 1976, while serving as commander of the Third Fleet, he was promoted to Vice Admiral. He passed away in 2004 and is buried in Arlington.
The Flight II Burke, USS Gravely (DDG 107), is named for him. Here seen Oct. 26, 2013, with an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter from the “Swamp Foxes” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 74 overhead. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Billy Ho/Released) 131026-N-QL471-333
As for the rest of the Edsalls, the former Coast Guard-manned USS Forster (DE/DER-334/WDE-434) may possibly still be afloat in Vietnam as the pier side trainer Dai Ky, while ex-USS Hurst (DE-250) which has been in the Mexican Navy since 1973, is still in use limited use as the training ship ARM Commodore Manuel Azueta (D111).
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