USCGC Half Moon ( WAVP - 378 ) USCGC " Half Moon " ( WAVP - 378 ) , later WHEC - 378 , was a " Casco " - class United States Coast Guard cutter in service from 1948 to 1969 . Construction and U . S . Navy service . " Half Moon " began life as the United States Navy " Barnegat " - class seaplane tender USS " Half Moon " ( AVP - 26 ) . She was laid down on 10 March 1942 by Lake Washington Shipyard at Houghton , Washington , launched on 12 July 1942 , and commissioned into the U . S . Navy on 15 June 1943 . She served in the New Guinea campaign and Philippines campaign during World War II , and at Okinawa and in the Philippines postwar . She was decommissioned on 4 September 1946 and placed in reserve . 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 U . S . Navy loaned " Half Moon " to the United States Coast Guard on 30 July 1948 . After undergoing conversion for Coast Guard use , she was commissioned into the Coast Guard on 14 September 1948 as USCGC " Half Moon " ( WAVP - 378 ) . U . S . Coast Guard service . Atlantic operations 1948 - 1967 . " Half Moon " was stationed at Staten Island and Governors Island in New York City throughout her Coast Guard career . Her primary duty was to serve on ocean 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 . On 24 August 1951 and 25 August 1951 , " Half Moon " assisted the merchant ship " Castello Guadalest " in the Atlantic at Latitude 39°30 ’ North , Longitude 58°32 ’ West . While in Bermuda on a United States Coast Guard Reserve training cruise , " Half Moon " helped civil authorities in Bermuda fight a fire aboard the merchant ship " Coastal Service " at Ordnance Wharf , St . Georges , Bermuda , on 14 August 1963 . " Half Moon " was reclassified as a high endurance cutter and redesignated WHEC - 378 on 1 May 1966 . Her loan period from the U . S . Navy came to an end on 26 September 1966 , when she was transferred permanently from the Navy to the Coast Guard . On 11 January 1967 , " Half Moon " seized four American fishing vessel s seven nautical miles ( 13 kilometers ) northwest of Dog Rocks following a shooting incident in which one person was killed and another wounded . Vietnam War service 1967 . " Half Moon " sailed from New York Harbor on 1 April 1967 under the command of Commander Emmett G . McCarthy , bound for Pearl Harbor , Hawaii , and an assignment to Coast Guard Squadron Three . The squadron , which was designated Task Unit 70 . 8 . 6 , was activated at Pearl Harbor , Hawaii , on 24 April 1967 when its commander , Captain John E . Day , hoisted his pennant aboard his flagship , Coast Guard cutter USCGC " Gresham " ( WHEC - 387 ) . Coast Guard Squadron Three was tasked to operate in the South China Sea in conjunction with U . S . Navy forces in Operation Market Time , the interdiction of communist coastal arms and munition s traffic along the coastline of Vietnam during the Vietnam War . The squadrons other Vietnam War duties included fire support for ground forces , resupplying Coast Guard and Navy patrol boat s , and search - and - rescue operations . Serving in the squadron with " Gresham " and " Half Moon " were cutters USCGC " Yakutat " ( WHEC - 380 ) , USCGC " Barataria " ( WHEC - 381 ) , and USCGC " Bering Strait " ( WHEC - 372 ) ; like " Half Moon " and " Gresham " , they all were former Navy " Barnegat " - class ships . They departed Pearl Harbor on 26 April 1967 and reported to Commander , United States Seventh Fleet , for Market Time duty on 4 May 1967 . They were joined by Navy radar picket destroyer escort s ( DERs ) of Escort Squadrons 5 and 7 . The ten Market Time ships arrived at Subic Bay in the Philippines on 10 May 1967 . The five Coast Guard cutters and five Navy destroyer escorts continuously manned four Market Time stations off Vietnam , while only Navy warships served on two Taiwan patrol stations . One ship rotated duty as the station ship in Hong Kong . During her tour , " Half Moon " conducted nine naval gunfire missions in support of forces ashore . On 12 September 1967 she was ordered to fire on an enemy build - up in An Xugen Province ; her gunfire killed at least one enemy soldier and destroyed three Viet Cong fortification s on that occasion . During her tour , she was credited with killing at least 13 Viet Cong soldiers , destroyed 64 military emplacements and structures , and sinking four sampans . " Half Moon " also served as a home base for 50 - foot ( 15 . 25 m ) U . S . Navy fast patrol craft ( or " Swift boats " ) and participated in search and rescue operations . " Half Moon " concluded her Vietnam War tour on 29 December 1967 . Atlantic operations 1968 - 1969 . " Half Moon " returned from Vietnam to her home port at New York City on 22 January 1968 and resumed her rotuine Coast Guard operations in the Atlantic . On 11 July 1968 she helped to evacuate an injured crewman from the West German merchant ship " Brunsdeich " . Decommissioning and disposal . The Coast Guard decommissioned " Half Moon " on 15 July 1969 . She was sold for scrapping on 29 April 1970 to Cantieri Navali , Genoa , Italy , for a bid price of $ 66 , 000 ( USD ) .