page_title: USCGC Basswood (WLB-388)
section_title: Operational history
hierarchical_section_title: USCGC Basswood (WLB-388) / Operational history
caption_attribution_description: The Coast Guard Cutter Basswood works a buoy as busy Vietnamese fishermen travel to open sea and their fishing grounds from Vung Tau harbor. The cutter battled monsoon weather for a 30-day tour to establish and reservice sea aids-to-navigation dotting the 1,000 mile South Vietnamese coastline.
context_page_description: USCGC Basswood (WLB-388) was an Iris-class buoy tender belonging to the United States Coast Guard launched on 20 May 1943, and commissioned on 12 January 1944.
context_section_description: Basswood was laid down in Duluth, Minnesota, and commissioned in January 1944. From March to April 1944, she performed general ATON and icebreaking on the Great Lakes after which she was transferred to Astoria, Oregon, for additional ATON duty until the end of World War II.
  In the 1950s Basswood made several trips to the Marshall Islands in support of US nuclear weapons testing there, specifically for Operations Greenhouse (1951), Castle (1954), and Redwing (1956). Forty-three nuclear weapons tests occurred at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshalls from 1948 to 1958.
  She returned to the Marshalls in 1966, carrying Dayle Husted of the Smithsonian Institution to Enewetak as part of the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program. Basswood spent two days anchored in the lagoon there while Husted conducted his survey.
  Basswood completed three deployments to Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Consequently, personnel who served aboard her during one of these deployments are "eligible for the presumption of Agent Orange herbicide exposure" by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
  From 1968 until her decommissioning in 1998, Basswood was stationed in Guam, and holds the distinction of being commissioned longer than any other naval ship assigned there. While based in Guam, she was the driving force behind Project Handclasp, a US Navy program to provide health care and humanitarian relief to outlying islands in the Pacific Ocean.
  In 1976, the eye of Typhoon Pamela passed over Guam causing widespread, major damage. In Apra Harbor, Basswood's home port, ten ships or tugs were sunk or forced aground, as were numerous smaller vessels. However, Basswood successfully rode out the storm at anchor, recording a peak wind gust of 120 knots/hour (138 mph) and a minimum barometric pressure of 933.1 mb (27.6 inHg).
  On July 1, 1997, Basswood began pursuit of the fishing vessel Cao Yu No. 6025. The Cao Yu was sighted by a Canadian Air Force P-3 crew on June 26 about 1,500 miles northwest of Midway Island apparently engaged in illegal driftnet fishing. US Coast Guard and Navy aircraft surveilled the ship before it was intercepted by Basswood, which followed the fishing vessel for some 1,500 miles. Contrary to the master's claims, the People's Republic of China denied that the vessel was registered there and, therefore, the Coast Guard determined that it was flagless and subject to boarding. The Cao Yu "aggressively" resisted but crew from Basswood and the USCGC Chase nevertheless boarded the Cao Yu on July 10 near the Japanese island of Kyushu and seized a 120-ton catch of mostly albacore tuna along with illegal driftnets. The Cao Yu's crew was taken aboard the Chase and transported to Guam. Basswood towed the Cao Yu to Guam where it was sold at auction, the ship's master was prosecuted for resisting the Coast Guard boarding.
caption: USCGC Basswood works a buoy in Vũng Tàu harbor, 1967
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