USS Beacon (PG-99)

Beacon refueling from USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63), 1970
History
United States
Name:	USS Beacon (PG-99)
Builder:	Peterson Builders, Inc.
Laid down:	15 July 1968
Launched:	17 May 1969
Commissioned:	22 November 1969
Decommissioned:	22 April 1977
Fate:	Transferred to Hellenic Navy as PG Hormi
Greece
Name:	PG Hormi (P 230)
Status:	currently serving as of 2009
General characteristics
Class and type:	Asheville-class gunboat
Displacement:	245 tons
Length:	164 ft 6 in
Beam:	23 ft 11 in
Draft:	5 ft 4 in
Speed:	40 kts
Complement:	24
Armament:	1 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber gun 1 × Bofors 40 mm gun mount 2 × twin .50 caliber machine guns

USS Beacon (PGM-99/PG-99) was a Asheville-class gunboat in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. She was transferred to the Hellenic Navy where she serves as PG Hormi.

Beacon was laid down on 15 July 1968 at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin by Peterson Builders, Inc.; launched on 17 May 1969; sponsored by Mrs. William F. Krantz; and commissioned at the Boston Naval Shipyard on 22 November 1969, Lt. Larry R. Seaquist in command.

The gunboat, designed for littoral operations such as those presented by the volatile Cuban situation of the early 1960s, was equipped with combination diesel and gas turbine engines. The latter provided bursts of extremely high speed that, when combined with variable-pitch propellers, allowed Beacon and her sisters to perform blockade, surveillance, and patrol missions in confined, coastal waters.

Ordered to San Diego, to join Coastal Squadron (CosRon) 3, the ship headed south on 4 December. Five days later, after stops at Newport, Rhode Island and her namesake city of Beacon, New York, she moored at the Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek. There, the gunboat welcomed a number of official visitors on board before departing the Norfolk area on 12 January 1970. In company with sisterships USS Surprise and USS Green Bay, the gunboat stopped at Mayport, Florida, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before transiting the Panama Canal on 25 January. After stopping for fuel at Rodman in the Canal Zone, she resumed her voyage to California, making another fuel stop at Acapulco, Mexico, before arriving in San Diego on 7 February. Joining the other gunboats in CosRon 3, she conducted shakedown training out of San Diego until late June. On 29 June, Beacon began a post shakedown availability at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard.