Liberty Ship Built in Florida
Locator (YAGR-6) was laid down as SS Frank O. Peterson by J.A. Jones Construction Co., in Panama City, Florida, 9 February 1945; launched 23 March 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Evelyn Flynn; acquired by the Navy 10 June 1955; renamed Locator 12 September 1955; converted to naval use; and commissioned at Charleston, South Carolina, 21 January 1956, Lt. Comdr. Frank A. Wigner in command.
Departing Charleston 21 February, Locator steamed through the Panama Canal and arrived San Francisco, California, 17 March. After a period of repair and training she was assigned to a radar picket station off the U.S. West Coast. Coordinating operations with the Continental and North American Air Defense Commands, she detected, tracked, and reported all air contacts that came within her radar surveillance.
Locator was reclassified AGR-6 on 28 September 1958 and for the next 7 years continued the constant vigil at sea, ever ready to sound the signal of enemy air attack. Her operations at sea were alternated by in-port replenishment periods at San Francisco, California.
Read more about this topic: USS Locator (AGR-6)
Famous quotes containing the words liberty, ship, built and/or florida:
“You cannot have Liberty in this world without what you call Moral Virtue, & you cannot have Moral Virtue without the slavery of that half of the human race who hate what you call Moral Virtue.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“Small pity for him!—He sailed away
From a leaking ship in Chaleur Bay,—”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“Many are concerned about the monuments of the West and the East,—to know who built them. For my part, I should like to know who in those days did not build them,—who were above such trifling.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In Florida consider the flamingo,
Its color passion but its neck a question.”
—Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989)