USS Pocatello (PF-9)

USS "Pocatello" (PF-9), a "Tacoma"-class frigate, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Pocatello, Idaho.

"Pocatello" (PF–9), a patrol frigate, originally classified as gunboat with the designation PG-117, was laid down on 17 August 1943 at Kaiser Yard No. 4, in Richmond, California; launched on 17 October 1943, sponsored by Miss Thelma Dixey, a great-granddaughter of Chief Pocatello; manned by a Coast Guard crew; and commissioned at Richmond on 18 February 1944, with Lieutenant Commander S. G. Guill, USCG, in command.

After fitting out at General Engineering and Drydock Company, in Alameda, California, and shakedown out of San Diego, California, through 28 April, "Pocatello" was assigned to Commander, Western Sea Frontier, and directed to commence weather station operations out of Seattle, Washington. Departing San Francisco on 17 May, she arrived at Seattle on 22 June. One month later she commenced her first patrol on Weather Station Able.

"Pocatello"s weather station was approximately 1,500 miles west of Seattle. Patrols consisted of thirty days at sea followed by ten days in port at Seattle. "Pocatello" alternated on station with the Coast Guard cutter "Haida", and had completed a dozen patrols by the war’s end. "Pocatello" was then laid up on the west coast. Scheduled for disposal, she shifted to Charleston, South Carolina, arriving there on 6 April 1946 and decommissioning there on 2 May. "Pocatello" was subsequently sold at Charleston to J. C. Berkwit and Company of New York.

References

External links

* [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/p8/pocatello.htm history.navy.mil: USS "Pocatello"]
* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/08009.htm navsource.org: USS "Pocatello"]
* [http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/patrol/pf9.htm hazegray.org: USS "Pocatello"]