Figure 1: USS Half Moon (AVP-26) photographed off Houghton, Washington, on 15 June 1943, the day of her first commissioning. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Half Moon (AVP-26) photographed off Houghton, Washington, on 15 June 1943, the day of her first commissioning. She was completed with a main battery of four 5-inch guns. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Half Moon (AVP-26) photographed at her builder's yard at Houghton, Washington, on 15 June 1943, the day of her first commissioning. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Half Moon (AVP-26) photographed at her builder's yard at Houghton, Washington, on 15 June 1943, the day of her first commissioning. One of her two after 5-inch unshielded gun mounts and her seaplane crane are in the foreground. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USCGC Half Moon (WAVP-378) arrives on Ocean Station Delta off the coast of Canada, 1 April 1965. US Coast Guard photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: USCGC Half Moon (WAVP-378) underway, date and place unknown. US Coast Guard photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: USCGC Half Moon (WAVP-378) at Curtis Bay, Maryland, in the fall of 1964. US Coast Guard photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: USCGC Half Moon (WHEC-378) underway off the coast of Vietnam, date unknown. US Coast Guard photograph from the Office of the US Coast Guard Historian. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: A US Coast Guard 82-foot patrol boat comes alongside USCGC Half Moon (WHEC-378) for replenishment during Operation Market Time off the coast of South Vietnam. Photograph courtesy of Russ Worthington. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: USCGC Half Moon (WHEC-378) patch while attached to Squadron Three off the coast of Vietnam. Photograph courtesy of John LeClair. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11: USCGC Half Moon (WHEC-378), probably towards the end of her career with the US Coast Guard. Photograph courtesy of Russ Worthington. Click on photograph for larger image.
NOTE: There is an excellent web site dedicated to the USCGC Half Moon and its crew: http://reocities.com/Pentagon/8917/
Named after a bay on the coast of California, the 1,766-ton USS Half Moon (AVP-26) was a Barnegat class small seaplane tender that was built by the Lake Washington Shipyards at Houghton, Washington, and was commissioned on 15 June 1943. Originally designed as a motor torpedo boat tender and designated AGP-6, Half Moon was re-designated AVP-26 on 1 May 1943 and converted into a small seaplane tender. The ship was approximately 311 feet long and 41 feet wide, had a top speed of 18 knots, and had a crew of 215 officers and men. Half Moon initially was armed with four 5-inch guns and several 40-mm and 20-mm guns, but her armament was reduced substantially later on in her career.
Half Moon left San Diego, California, in August 1943 and was assigned to the southwest Pacific. From October to December, Half Moon tended to seaplanes at Namoai Bay on Sariba Island, New Guinea. She also assisted seaplanes along the coast of New Guinea at Finshafen, Middleburg, and Morotai until October 1944. At times, Half Moon was used as a transport as well.
In October 1944, Half Moon left New Guinea and steamed to the Philippines, where she established a seaplane base on the eastern coast of Leyte Island. On 24 October, the ship witnessed the last major sea battle between surface fleets at the Battle of Surigao Strait. Since there was little a seaplane tender could do in a major fleet engagement, Half Moon remained off the coast of Leyte, well to the west of the ships fighting in the battle. After the battle, the ship resumed her seaplane-tending duties and remained in the Philippines until August 1945. Half Moon survived a typhoon while on her way to Okinawa in early September, but returned to the Philippines in October. On 7 November, Half Moon steamed back to the United States and arrived at Seattle, Washington, on 1 December 1945. On 12 April 1946, the ship was sent to San Diego and was decommissioned there on 4 September and placed in reserve.
In September 1948, Half Moon was refitted and transferred to the US Coast Guard and re-designated WAVP-378. Some of her modifications included the installment of oceanographic equipment, the renovation of the crew’s living spaces, and the addition of modern naval communications and radar equipment. Her large aviation gasoline storage tanks (which were used while she was a seaplane tender) were converted to hold diesel fuel for her engines. This extended the ship’s range significantly so that she could remain at sea for extended periods of time without refueling. Based at Staten Island, New York, Half Moon’s primary duties were to collect weather data in the Atlantic Ocean and to serve as a search and rescue ship when needed.
Half Moon served in the Atlantic as a floating weather station and search and rescue vessel throughout the 1950s and well into the 1960s. On 1 May 1966, Half Moon was re-designated WHEC-378 and on 1 April 1967 she was ordered to join the US Seventh Fleet off the coast of Vietnam. Eighteen days after receiving her orders to leave for Southeast Asia, Half Moon left New York and joined five other high-endurance cutters that also were going to South Vietnam to form Coast Guard Squadron Three. Half Moon sailed from New York City to Panama and, after transiting the canal, went to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. After being loaded with supplies and ammunition, the ship proceeded to Subic Bay, the Philippines, and then on to South Vietnam. Half Moon and the other ships in Squadron Three were assigned to Operation Market Time. Their primary duty was to prevent arms smugglers from infiltrating South Vietnam by sea. For this mission, Half Moon was armed with a 5-inch gun, heavy machine guns, and mortars. While patrolling off the coast of South Vietnam, Half Moon provided gunfire support to Army units on land with her 5-inch gun and her crew boarded and searched numerous vessels suspected of carrying contraband. The cutter also sank four sampans (killing 13 Viet Cong guerillas), damaged or destroyed 64 enemy military shore emplacements and structures, and acted as a support ship for the Navy’s 50-foot Swift Boats.
Half Moon left South Vietnam in December 1967 and arrived back in New York City on 22 January 1968. She resumed her duties as a weather ship and search and rescue vessel on 23 April 1968 and continued performing these duties until she was decommissioned in New York on 15 July 1969. The old warship eventually was sold for scrap on 20 April 1970.
