In World War II, the author's ship the USS Albuquerque PF-7 endured
a fourteen month tour of duty in the Bering Sea performing unending
patrols, escorts and emergency steaming to ships in distress to the
point that some aboard Albuquerque feared that they had crossed the
line, forgotten by the Navy and destined to roam the seas a ghost
ship in company with the Flying Dutchman until Judgment Day. Author
David Hendrickson, former historian for the Patrol Frigate Reunion
Association seeks to preserve the memory of the patrol frigates of
WWII and the Korean War. One hundred frigates were authorized for
construction in December 1942, four later cancelled, seventy-five
manned by the Coast Guard, twenty-one loaned to the British Royal
Navy as Colony-class frigates. The American frigates, designed
after the British River-class frigates, were designated
Tacoma-class, all named for small American cities.The Coast
Guard-manned frigates served in every theater from the North
Atlantic to the South Pacific. In the North Atlantic many served as
weather ships, others assigned escort duty across the Atlantic.
Twenty-one frigates served with the 7th Fleet Amphibious Division
on the march from New Guinea to Leyte in the Philippines. Near the
end of the war, twenty-eight frigates were transferred to the
Soviet Union under Lend-Lease at the secret transfer base, Cold
Bay, Alaska. All but one returned to the US Navy at Yokosuka,
Japan, in late 1949. Fifteen were recommissioned for Korean War
duty. Britain returned the colony-class frigates in 1946. The
majority of frigates were scrapped after WWII, many sold or given
under treaty to nations around the world, only to disappear over
the years. About the AuthorLeaving college after the fall semester
1942, David Hendrickson joined the US Coast Guard in the spring of
1943. Following basic training and seamanship school on Government
Island, (now Coast Guard Island, Alameda, California) and Navy deck
petty officer training on Treasure Island, he was assigned to the
newly commissioned USS Albuquerque PF-7, in San Francisco in
December 1943. Upon completing shakedown, Albuquerque deployed to
the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands for a fourteen-month tour as lead
ship of Escort Division 27. Leaving Albuquerque to the Russians
under Lend-Lease in August 1945, Hendrickson served aboard USCG
FS-34 and lastly aboard USS Admiral E. W. Eberle AP 123, until
discharge, April 1946.Returning to college in 1946 led to a
master's degree in history and a thirty-year teaching career
(history and geography) at Fresno City College, Fresno, California.
During his teaching career, Hendrickson was twice a Fulbright
exchange lecturer to Great Britain, 1966-67 and 1981-82, and
president of the California Geographical Society 1978-79. He ended
his teaching career, 1989-90, lecturing native teachers of the
Pacific nation of Palau seeking the AB degree.
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