World War II

Invasion of Okinawa

On 18 March 1945, Bering Strait began preparations for Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa. Underway on 19 March 1945, she escorted the seaplane tender USS Hamlin to Saipan and completed the preparations for "Iceberg" by loading VH-3 equipment between 20 and 23 March 1945. This work accomplished, she sailed for Kerama Retto on 23 March 1945 in company with three large seaplane tenders and three of her sister ships, as Task Group (TG) 51.20.

Reaching her destination on 28 March 1945, Bering Strait anchored in the Kerama Retto passage, and TG 51.20 established a seaplane base that day. The next day, VH-3 arrived and flew its first "Dumbo" mission.

On "L-day," 1 April 1945, the invasion of Okinawa commenced. The first "Dumbo" mission of the invasion for VH-3 proved successful, as the squadron commander, Lieutenant Commander W. H. Bonvillian, rescued the three-man crew of a Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber from Torpedo Squadron 29 (VT-29). Antiaircraft fire had brought the plane down in a rice paddy, and the three crewmen deemed it prudent to take to their rubber boat and head out to sea where Lieutenant Commander Bonvillian's Mariner picked them up.

For the next three months, Bering Strait served as the coordinating control tender at Kerama Retto, not only tending seaplanes but also conducting sonar searches to guard against midget submarine incursions. Planes under her direction carried out 268 missions during April, May, and June 1945, rescuing 105 men from 39 different squadrons – 26 U.S. Navy, ten U.S. Marine Corps, two U.S. Army Air Forces, and one British Fleet Air Arm. The aircraft carrier-based squadrons among that number came from 23 ships, including the British fleet carrier HMS Formidable.

Twice during April 1945, one of Bering Strait's planes was forced down by friendly fire and compelled to taxi back to base. On 23 April 1945, one of her PBMs transferred a severely wounded U.S. Marine to the seaplane tender USS St. George for medical treatment. A little over a month later, on 24 May 1945, her PBMs rescued a pilot from the waters at the mouth of Ariake Bay, on southern Kyūshū. Similar rescues took place on 2 June 1945, when Bering Strait-based PBMs rescued the crew of a crashed PB2Y Coronado from inside Kagoshima Bay, as well as a pilot from the fleet carrier USS Ticonderoga. Later that month, on 14 June 1945, Bering Strait-based Mariners rescued pilots under fire from Japanese guns at Kikai Shima in the northern Ryukyu Islands.

Pilots and aircrew proved not the only beneficiaries of Bering Strait's controlled rescue missions. On 27 May 1945, two kamikaze suicide aircraft crashed the destroyer USS Braine. One Bering Strait-based PBM rescued ten men from the ship while a second stood by in case the need arose to fly critically hurt sailors to medical treatment. On other occasions, Bering Strait's planes escorted damaged aircraft to safety, or directed ships to the assistance of survivors in the water.

The ship's stay at Kerama Retto likewise proved eventful, as, during that three-month period the ship went to general quarters 154 times; there was one day, 6 June 1945, on which the ship stood to battle stations six times. On 5 May 1945, two of her men suffered injuries when hit by shrapnel from friendly fire bursting too close to the ship during an attack by Japanese planes; she herself then fired on a Japanese plane attempting to crash on the nearby St. George. On 21 June, Bering Strait's guns shot down a Nakajima E4N Type 00 (Allied reporting name "Jake") reconnaissance floatplane. During that same raid, just after one kamikaze had crashed the seaplane tender USS Curtiss, a second overflew Bering Strait and headed for the seaplane tender USS Kenneth Whiting. Bering Strait took the kamikaze under fire and shot it down short of Kenneth Whiting.

Relieved of her duties as coordinating control tender on 30 June 1945, Bering Strait shifted to Chimu Bay, Okinawa, on 15 July. She tended four PBMs from VH-3 until 7 August, when she transferred them to another seaplane tender and assumed duties tending six planes from Rescue Squadron 1 (VH-1). Twice during her first months at Chimu Bay weather compelled her to undertake typhoon evasion, once from 19 to 20 July 1945 and again between 1 and 3 August 1945.

Hostilities with Japan ended on 15 August 1945, bringing World War II to a close, while Bering Strait was operating at Chimu Bay.

Post-World War II

Departing Okinawa on 26 September 1945, Bering Strait headed for Japan to support the occupation of that country. Reaching Sasebo, Japan, soon thereafter, she remained at that port until her sister ship Cook Inlet relieved her on 30 December 1945, then departed for the United States. Proceeding via Pearl Harbor, Bering Strait reached San Francisco, California, on 21 January 1946 and commenced pre-inactivation overhaul.

Decommissioning

Bering Strait was decommissioned at Naval Air Station Alameda, California, on 21 June 1946 and placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

Pacific operations 1948–1967

Bering Strait was stationed at Seattle, Washington, beginning on 14 December 1948. Her primary duty during her Coast Guard service was to serve on ocean stations in the Pacific Ocean to gather meteorological data. While on duty in one of these stations, she was required to patrol a 210 square miles (540 km²) area for three weeks at a time, leaving the area only when physically relieved by another Coast Guard cutter or in the case of a dire emergency. While on station, she acted as an aircraft check point at the point of no return, a relay point for messages from ships and aircraft, as a source of the latest weather information for passing aircraft, as a floating oceanographic laboratory, and as a search-and-rescue ship for downed aircraft and vessels in distress, and engaged in law enforcement operations. During her Coast Guard career she also visited places as diverse as Adak, Alaska; Yokosuka, Japan; the French Frigate Shoals, and Laysan Island.

In 1954 she was transferred to Honolulu, Hawaii, which remained her home port for the rest of her Coast Guard career, and continued her ocean station duties in the Pacific from there.

In January 1956, Bering Strait evacuated an injured seaman in need of medical assistance from the merchant ship Madaket. On 13 February 1960, she used one ton of concrete patch material that had been air-dropped to her to assist the Japanese training ship Toyama Maru in making emergency repairs off Palmyra Island.

Bering Strait conducted oceanographic experiments on Ocean Station Victor, 34N 164E, in December 1964 and January 1965. On 13 January 1965, she relieved the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Matagorda, which had been damaged while standing by the disabled Liberian merchant ship Saint Helena 1,000 nautical miles (1,900 km) northwest of Midway Atoll. While Matagorda steamed to Midway and then on to Honolulu in heavy seas, Bering Strait stood by Saint Helena, which was in danger of breaking in two, until a commercial tug arrived to assist the merchant ship.

Bering Strait was reclassified as a high endurance cutter and redesignated WHEC-382 on 1 May 1966. She again conducted oceanographic experiments at Ocean Station Victor from 19 June 1966 to 10 July 1966. Her loan period from the Navy came to an end on 26 September 1966, when she was transferred permanently from the Navy to the Coast Guard.

Vietnam War service 1967–1968

USCGC Bering Strait (WHEC-382) during her Vietnam War service.

USCGC Bering Strait (WHEC-382) in Subic Bay in the Philippines in 1970 during the Vietnam War.

In 1967, Bering Strait was assigned to Coast Guard Squadron Three, which was designated Task Unit 70.8.6. The squadron was activated at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 24 April 1967 when its commander, Captain John E. Day, hoisted his pennant aboard his flagship, the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Gresham.

Coast Guard Squadron Three was tasked to operate in conjunction with U.S. Navy forces in Operation Market Time, the interdiction of North Vietnamese arms and munitions traffic along the coastline of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The squadron's other Vietnam War duties included fire support for ground forces, resupplying Coast Guard and Navy patrol boats, and search-and-rescue operations. Serving in the squadron with Gresham and Bering Strait were cutters USCGC Yakutat, USCGC Barataria and USCGC Half Moon; like Bering Strait and Gresham, they all were former Navy Barnegat-class ships. They departed Pearl Harbor on 26 April 1967 and reported to Commander, United States Seventh Fleet, for Market Time duty on 4 May 1967. They were joined by Navy radar picket destroyer escorts (DERs) of Escort Squadrons 5 and 7.

The ten Market Time ships arrived at Subic Bay in the Philippines on 10 May 1967. The five Coast Guard cutters and five Navy destroyer escorts continuously manned four Market Time stations off Vietnam, while only Navy warships served on two Taiwan patrol stations. One ship rotated duty as the station ship in Hong Kong. Bering Strait remained in the Western Pacific until 18 February 1968, then returned to the United States.

Pacific operations 1968–1970

Bering Strait returned to her conventional Coast Guard duties in 1968, still operating from Honolulu. From 24 February 1970 to 1 March 1970 she fought a fire on the Panamanian merchant ship Grand Ocean in the mid-Pacific.

Vietnam War service 1970

Bering Strait returned to Coast Guard Squadron Three for service in the Vietnam War on 17 May 1970. Her second Vietnam tour of duty ended on 31 December 1970.

Decommissioning

After her antisubmarine warfare equipment had been removed, the Coast Guard decommissioned Bering Strait in South Vietnam on 1 January 1971, the day after her second Vietnam War tour ended.

Modernization

The Andrés Bonifacio-class frigates were passed to the Philippine Navy with fewer weapons aboard than they had had during their U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast guard careers and with old surface search radars installed. The Philippine Navy addressed these shortfalls through modernization programs. In Philippine service, Diego Silang retained her South Vietnamese armament, consisting of a single Mark 12 5"/38 caliber (127-mm) gun, a dual-purpose weapon capable of anti-surface and anti-air fire, mounted in a Mark 30 Mod 0 enclosed base ring with a range of up to 18,200 yards (16,600 m) yards; two twin Mark 1 Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun mounts, four Mk. 4 single 20-millimeter Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun mounts, four M2 Browning .50-caliber (12.7-millimeter) general-purpose machine guns, and two 81-mm mortars.^[8] However, in 1979 Hatch and Kirk, Inc., added a helicopter deck aft^[9] which could accommodate a Philippine Navy MBB Bo 105C helicopter for utility, scouting, and maritime patrol purposes, although the ship had no capability to refuel or otherwise support visiting helicopters.^[10] The Sperry SPS-53 surface search and navigation radar also was installed, replacing the AN/SPS-23 radar, although the ship retained both its AN/SPS-29D air search radar and its Mark 26 Mod 1 Fire Control Radar System.^[3] The Philippine Navy made plans to equip Diego Silang and her sister ships with new radar systems and long-range BGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles, but this upgrade did not materialize due to the worsening political and economic crisis in the Philippines in the mid-1980s.^[11]

Service history

Diego Silang was commissioned into the Philippine Navy in 1980 and served until her decommissioning in June 1985.^[12] She was recommissioned in 1987 as BRP Diego Silang (PF-14), and was decommissioned for the second and final time in April 1990.

Disposal

After the Philippine Navy found her to be beyond economical repair, Diego Silang was discarded in July 1990 and probably scrapped.^[13] Some of her usable parts were made available for her sister ship BRP Andrés Bonifacio (PF-7).