USCGC Spencer (WPG-36)

USCGC Spencer during WWII
History
United States
Name:	USCGC Spencer
Builder:	New York Navy Yard
Laid down:	11 September 1935
Launched:	6 January 1937
Commissioned:	1 March 1937
Decommissioned:	23 January 1974
Fate:	Sold for scrapping on 8 October 1981 to North American Smelting Co.
General characteristics
Class and type:	Treasury-class cutter
Displacement:	2,216 long tons (2,252 t; 2,482 short tons)
Length:	327 ft (99.67 m)o/a
Beam:	41 ft (12.50 m)
Draught:	12.5 ft (3.81 m)
Propulsion:	2 oil-fueled Babcock & Wilcox boilers 2 shafts Westinghouse geared turbines 6,200 ihp (4,600 kW)
Speed:	20.5 knots (38.0 km/h)
Range:	12,300 nautical miles (22,780 km) at 11 knots (20.4 km/h)
Capacity:	135,180 US gallons (511,712 L)
Complement:	1937: 12 officers, 4 warrants, 107 enlisted 1941: 16 officers, 5 warrants, 202 enlisted 1966: 10 officers, 3 warrants, 134 enlisted
Sensors and processing systems:	1940s: HF/DF: DAR (converted British FH3) Radar: SC-4, SGa Fire Control Radar: Mk-26 Sonar: QC series 1960s: Radar: AN/SPS-29D; AN/SPA-52 Fire Control Radar: Mk-26 MOD 4 Sonar: AN/SQS-11
Armament:	1936: 3 x 5 in (130 mm)/51 cal 2 x 6-pounders 1 x 1-pounder 1941: 3 x 5"/51 cal 3 x 3 in (76 mm)/50 cal 4 x 50cal M2 Browning 2 x depth charge racks 1 x "Y" gun depth charge projector 1943: 2 x 5"/51 cal 4 x 3"/50 cal 2 x 20 mm Oerlikon/80cal 1 x Hedgehog 6 x "K" gun depth charge projectors 2 x depth charge racks 1945: 2 x 5"/38 cal 3 x 40mm/60 cal (twin mount) 4 x 20mm/80 cal 1946: 1 x 5"/38 cal 1 x 40mm/60 cal (twin mount) 2 x 20mm/80 cal 1 x Hedgehog 1966: 1 x 5 in (130 mm)/38 Mk30 MOD75 1 x Mk52 MOD3 Director 1 x Mk10-1 Hedgehog 2 (P&S) x Mk32 MOD5TT 4 x MK44 MOD1 torpedoes 2 x 50cal MK2 Browning MG 2 x MK13 high altitude parachute flare mortars
Aircraft carried:	1 Grumman JF-2 Duck or Curtiss SOC-4

USCGC Spencer (WPG-36) was a Treasury-class cutter of the United States Coast Guard that served during World War II. She was named for U.S. Treasury Secretary John Canfield Spencer.

Commissioned in 1937, she was first used as a search and rescue unit off Alaska's fishing grounds. When the United States entered World War II the Coast Guard temporarily became part of the United States Navy. Spencer saw service in the Pacific War. During the Battle of Atlantic she acted as a convoy escort, hunting German U-boats, and was responsible for sinking U-175 in 1943.

Spencer was assigned to the US Navy's Seventh Fleet, in the Pacific in late 1944, where she served as a Communications Command Ship. There she was credited with taking part in numerous amphibious assaults including Luzon and Palawan in the Philippines Campaign.

After the war Spencer returned to her Coast Guard duties, serving in the Atlantic Ocean. Here she provided navigational assistance for the fledgling Trans-Atlantic air industry and acted as a search and rescue platform both ships and aeroplanes.

She returned to combat duty off the Vietnam coast in February 1969. For ten months she carried out surveillance to prevent troops and supplies from getting into South Vietnam. She detected over 4,200 suspicious vessels and craft, closely monitored the movement of more than 1,320 of them and boarded 27 vessels to inspect of both their cargo and crew. Spencer detained 52 "enemy suspects" and turned them over to the South Vietnamese military for questioning. She also executed 13 naval gunfire missions in support of operations on land, destroying or damaging over 160 enemy structures, bunkers, and base camps. Spencer left Vietnam at the end of September and returned to the United States.