Reconfigured As A Radar Picket
The ship remained there until mid-1958 when she was taken over by the Navy and converted to a radar picket ship at the Charleston Naval Shipyard (South Carolina). During conversion, she was renamed Watchman and received the designation YAGR-16. However, that designation was changed to AGR-16 before she completed her conversion late in the year. On 5 January 1958, Watchman was placed in commission at Charleston, Lt. Comdr. Irvin Boaz in command.
Watchman conducted shakedown training in the Guantanamo Bay operating area during February. Following post-shakedown availability at Charleston from 5 to 18 March, she completed repairs and got underway for the U.S. West Coast. After transiting the Panama Canal and visiting Acapulco, Mexico, she arrived in her new home port --San Francisco, California -- on 11 April.
Assigned to the Continental Air Defense Command, she served as one of several radar picket ships operating as seaborne extensions of the command's contiguous radar coverage system. She operated from her base at San Francisco during her entire naval career, spending an average of 200 days per year actually at sea engaged in picket patrols.
That routine continued until 1 September 1965, at which time she and the remaining AGR's were placed out of commission.
Read more about this topic: USS Watchman (AGR-16)
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