USCGC Bering Strait ( WAVP - 382 ) USCGC " Bering Strait " ( WAVP - 382 ) , later WHEC - 382 , was a " Casco " - class United States Coast Guard cutter in service from 1948 to 1971 . Construction and U . S . Navy service . " Bering Strait " began life as the United States Navy " Barnegat " - class seaplane tender USS " Bering Strait " ( AVP - 34 ) . She was laid down on 7 June 1943 by Lake Washington Shipyard at Houghton , Washington , launched on 15 January 1944 , and commissioned into the U . S . Navy on 19 July 1944 . She served in the Central Pacific during World War II , including in the Okinawa campaign , and on occupation duty in Japan postwar . She was decommissioned on 21 June 1946 and placed in reserve at Alameda , California . 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 " Bering Strait " to the United States Coast Guard on 14 September 1948 . After undergoing conversion for Coast Guard use , she was commissioned into the Coast Guard on 14 December 1948 as USCGC " Bering Strait " ( WAVP - 382 ) . U . S . Coast Guard service . Pacific operations 1948 - 1967 . " Bering Strait " was stationed at Seattle , Washington , beginning on 14 December 1948 . Her primary duty during her Coast Guard service was to serve on ocean stations in the Pacific 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 . During her Coast Guard career she also visited places as diverse as Adak , Alaska ; Yokosuka , Japan ; the French Frigate Shoals , and Laysan Island . In 1954 she was transferred to Honolulu , Hawaii , which remained her home port for the rest of her Coast Guard career , and continued her ocean station duties in the Pacific from there . In January 1956 , " Bering Strait " evacuated an injured seaman in need of medical assistance from the merchant ship " Madaket " . On 13 February 1960 , used one ton of concrete patch material that had been air - dropped to her to assist the Japan ese training ship " Toyama Maru " in making emergency repairs off Palmyra Island . " Bering Strait " conducted oceanographic experiments on Ocean Station Victor in December 1964 and January 1965 . On 13 January 1965 , she relieved Coast Guard cutter USCGC " Matagorda " ( WAVP - 373 ) , which had been damaged while standing by the disabled Liberian merchant ship " Saint Helena " , which was in danger of breaking in two northwest of Midway Atoll , and herself stood by " Saint Helena " until a commercial tug arrived to assist the merchant ship . " Bering Strait " was reclassified as a high endurance cutter and redesignated WHEC - 382 on 1 May 1966 . She again conducted oceanographic experiments at Ocean Station Victor from 19 June 1966 to 10 July 1966 . Her loan period from the Navy came to an end on 26 September 1966 , when she was transferred permanently from the Navy to the Coast Guard . Vietnam War service 1967 - 1968 . In 1967 , " Bering Strait " was assigned to Coast Guard Squadron Three , which was designated Task Unit 70 . 8 . 6 . The squadron 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 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 " Bering Strait " were cutters USCGC " Yakutat " ( WHEC - 382 ) , USCGC " Barataria " ( WHEC - 381 ) , and USCGC " Half Moon " ( WHEC - 378 ) ; like " Bering Strait " 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 . " Bering Strait " remained in the Western Pacific until 18 February 1968 , then returned to the United States . Pacific operations 1968 - 1970 . " Bering Strait " returned to her conventional Coast Guard duties in 1968 , still operating from Honolulu . From 24 February 1970 to 1 March 1970 she fought fire on the Panamanian merchant ship " Grand Ocean " in the mid - Pacific . Vietnam War service 1970 . " Bering Strait " returned to Coast Guard Squadron Three for service in the Vietnam War on 17 May 1970 . Her second Vietnam tour of duty ended on 31 December 1970 . Decommissioning . The Coast Guard decommissioned " Bering Strait " in South Vietnam on 1 January 1971 , the day after her second Vietnam War tour ended . Foreign service . South Vietnamese service . " Bering Strait " was transferred to South Vietnam on 1 January 1971 and commissioned into the Republic of Vietnam Navy as patrol vessel RVNS " Tran Quang Khai " ( HQ - 02 ) . When South Vietnam collapsed at the end of the Vietnam War in April 1975 , " Tran Quang Khai " fled to Subic Bay in the Philippines . On 22 May 1975 and 23 May 1975 , a U . S . Coast Guard team inspected " Tran Quang Khai " and several other former " Casco " - class cutters which had been transferred to South Vietnam in 1971 and 1972 and , like " Tran Quang Khai " , 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 . " After " Tran Quang Khai " was cleaned , repaired , and made ready to return to service , the U . S . Navy transferred her to the Republic of the Philippines , with the formal transfer occurring on 5 April 1976 . Philippine Navy service . Commissioned into the Philippine Navy , she served as patrol vessel BRP " Diego Silang " ( PF - 9 ) until decommissioned in June 1985 . She was discarded in July 1990 and probably scrapped .