USCGC Chincoteague ( WAVP - 375 ) USCGC " Chincoteague " ( WAVP - 375 ) , later WHEC - 375 , was a " Casco " - class United States Coast Guard Cutter in service from 1949 to 1972 . Construction and U . S . Navy service . " Chincoteague " began life as the United States Navy " Barnegat " - class seaplane tender USS " Chincoteague " ( AVP - 24 ) . She was laid down on 23 July 1941 by Lake Washington Shipyard at Houghton , Washington , and was launched on 15 April 1942 . She commissioned into the U . S . Navy on 12 April 1943 . She operated in support of the New Guinea campaign and in the Central Pacific during World War II , including support of the Iwo Jima campaign , and operated at Okinawa and in China after the war . She was decommissioned on 21 December 1946 . Transferred to the United States Coast Guard . " Barnegat " - class ships were very reliable and seaworthy and had good habitability , and the Coast Guard viewed them as ideal for ocean station duty , in which they would perform weather reporting and search and rescue tasks , once they were modified by having a balloon shelter added aft and having oceanographic equipment , an oceanographic winch , and a hydrographic winch installed . The Navy loaned " Chincoteague " to the United States Coast Guard on March 1949 . The Coast Guard commissioned her as USCGC " Chincoteague " ( WAVP - 375 ) the same day . U . S . Coast Guard service . " Chincoteague " was homeported in Norfolk , Virginia , throughout her Coast Guard career . Her primary duty was to serve on weather stations in the Atlantic Ocean to gather meteorological data . While on duty in one of these stations , she was required to patrol a 210 - square - mile ( 544 - square - kilometer ) 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 . In December 1955 , " Chincoteague " took the disabled merchant ship " Canadian Observer " under tow to keep her from going aground off the south coast of Newfoundland in Canada . On 30 October 1956 , " Chincoteague " rescued 33 crewmen from the West German merchant ship " Helga Bolten " in the North Atlantic by using two inflatable lifeboats during heavy seas . She then stood by distressed vessels for seven days until they could be towed to the Azores by commercial tug . On 1 May 1966 , " Chincoteague " was reclassified as a high endurance cutter and redesignated WHEC - 375 . On 26 September 1966 her long - term long from the Navy to the Coast Guard came to an end when the Navy transferred her outright to the Coast Guard . " Chincoteague " took the disabled merchant ship " Kenyon Victory " under tow south of San Salvador Island in the Bahamas on 5 October 1969 until relieved of the tow by a commercial tug . Decommissioning and transfer to South Vietnam . In April 1972 , " Chincoteague " and two of her sister ships , Coast Guard cutters USCGC " Absecon " ( WHEC - 374 ) and USCGC " McCulloch " ( WHEC - 386 ) , were deployed as Coast Guard Squadron Two , with crews composed mainly of members of the United States Coast Guard Reserve . They were originally scheduled to sail to Subic Bay in the Philippine Islands , but were diverted to the U . S . Navy base at Apra Harbor , Guam . Eventually the three cutters were decommissioned , transferred to the U . S . Navy , and then transferred to South Vietnam . For " Chincoteague " , all three of these events occurred on 21 June 1972 . Foreign service . Republic of Vietnam Navy service . South Vietnam commissioned the ship into the South Vietnamese Navy as patrol vessel RVNS " Ly Thuong Kiet " ( HQ - 16 ) . When the South Vietnamese government collapsed at the end of the Vietnam War in April 1975 , " Ly Thuong Kiet " fled to the Philippines . On 22 May 1975 and 23 May 1975 , a U . S . Coast Guard team inspected " Ly Thuong Kiet " and several other former " Casco " - class cutters which had been transferred to South Vietnam in 1971 and 1972 and , like " Ly Thuong Kiet " , fled to the Philippines in April 1975 . One of the inspectors noted : " These vessels brought in several hundred refugees and are generally rat - infested . They are in a filthy , deplorable condition . Below decks generally would compare with a garbage scow . " Philippine Navy service . After " Ly Thuong Kiet " was cleaned , repaired , and made ready to return to service , the U . S . Navy transferred her on 6 April 1976 to the Republic of the Philippines , which commissioned her into the Philippine Navy as patrol vessel BRP " Andres Bonifacio " ( PF - 7 ) . The Philippine Navy decommissioned her in June 1985 .