Casco Class Cutter - Operations

Operations

The first three ships entered service in 1946 and 1947, with the rest following in 1948 and 1949. Apart from Dexter, which was out of commission for several years in the 1950s, all remained active without break until the late 1960s and early 1970s, and one, Unimak, after a brief period out of commission in the mid-1970s, remained in service until 1988. All saw service as weather-reporting ships on ocean station patrols until the late 1960s and early 1970s except Dexter, which became the Coast Guard's United States West Coast training ship after returning to commission in 1958.

The Cascos had a variety of fates. The Navy sank five as targets in 1968 and 1969, and five others were scrapped in the early 1970s. The last survivor in Coast Guard service, Unimak, was scuttled to form an artificial reef.

Seven ships were transferred to South Vietnam in 1971 and 1972. When South Vietnam collapsed at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, six fled to the Philippines, where two were cannibalized for spare parts and the other four entered service in the Philippine Navy, operating until the mid-1980s. The seventh ship, the former Absecon, was captured by North Vietnam, appears to have remained active in the Vietnam People's Navy into the 1990s, and may remain afloat today as the last surviving Barnegat- or Casco-class ship.