Figure 1: USS Tacoma (PG-92), date and place unknown. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Tacoma (PG-92), date and place unknown. Photograph courtesy of Terry Eccleston, GMCS(SW), USNR, Patrol Gunboat Association, and Terry W. McManuels, ETCM(SW), Retired. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Tacoma (PG-92), right, coming up astern of USS Canon (PG-90), date and place unknown. US Navy photograph from the November 1972 edition of All Hands Magazine. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: Cutaway drawing of an Asheville class patrol gunboat. Click on diagram for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Tacoma (PG-92), date and place unknown. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: USS New Jersey (BB-62) and USS Crockett (PG-88), in Dry Dock 6, Ship Repair Facility at Yokosuka, Japan, circa January or February 1969. This picture gives you an idea of the difference in size between an Asheville class patrol gunboat and a battleship. Photograph by YN3 Clark Pickard, aboard Crockett. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: USS Tacoma (PG-92) after she was transferred to Colombia in 1983 and renamed ARC (Armada de la República de Colombia) Quitasueño (P 112). Photograph courtesy of Lieutenant (r) Luis Bernardo Castro Villegas. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: ARC Quitasueño (P 112) in July 1998 after she was transferred from the Colombian Navy to the Colombian Coast Guard. Photograph courtesy of Capitan de Corbeta, Phinio Alberto Garcia Garavito, Columbian Navy, via Patrol Gunboat Association, Terry W. McManuels, ETCM(SW), Retired. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: ARC Quitasueño (P 112) as she looks today at the Naval Base ARC Bolivar, Colombia, Main Pier, Sector E. The photograph is dated 8 June 2012. Photograph courtesy of Lieutenant Luis B. Castro (r), Colombian Navy. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after a
city in Washington State, the 247-ton USS Tacoma
(PG-92) was an Asheville class patrol
gunboat that was built by the Tacoma Boatbuilding Company at Tacoma,
Washington, and was commissioned on 14 July 1969. The ship was approximately
165 feet long and 24 feet wide, had a top speed of 37.5 knots, and had a crew
of 24 officers and men. Tacoma was
armed with one 3-inch gun, one 40-mm gun, and two twin .50-caliber machine gun
mounts.
During the
fall of 1969, Tacoma completed her
shakedown cruise along the coast of California. After that, she participated in
amphibious exercises off Camp Pendleton, California, in early December. In
January 1970, Tacoma entered Long
Beach Naval Shipyard for post-shakedown availability. She went to San Diego,
California, on 20 May and began preparations for deployment to the western
Pacific. On 1 August, she set sail for the Marianas Islands. After a one-week
stopover in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Tacoma
arrived in her new home port at Apra, Guam, on 28 August.
For the next
four years, Tacoma alternated
deployments to Vietnam and patrols in the islands of the Trust Territories of
Micronesia. Her first tour of duty off the coast of Vietnam began on 28
September 1970 when she arrived at Cam Ranh Bay after a brief overhaul at Subic
Bay in the Philippines. She was assigned to the US Navy’s Coastal Surveillance
Force off Vietnam and participated in search-and-rescue missions and
interdicted communist coastal supply traffic as part of “Operation Market
Time,” which was designed to prevent communist guerrillas in South Vietnam from
being supplied by sea by the North Vietnamese. On 22 November 1970, Tacoma and several other units of the
Coastal Surveillance Force attacked and destroyed a large North Vietnamese
trawler that was trying to run the blockade to supply communist rebels in South
Vietnam with weapons and ammunition. Tacoma steamed off the coast of Vietnam
for two more months and then returned to Subic Bay on 31 January 1971. The
gunboat remained there for two weeks and then headed back to Guam, arriving at
Apra on 20 February.
For the next
five months, Tacoma was in port
undergoing an overhaul and then patrolled off the coast of Guam. On 9 July
1971, Tacoma went on her first patrol
of the Micronesia Trust Territories. She visited seven islands in the Yap and
Palau districts of the Eastern Caroline Islands, conducting surveillance and
making goodwill visits. Tacoma
returned to Guam on 26 July, but left again on 10 August for her second patrol
of the Trust Territories, which lasted from 10 August to 1 September. The ship
visited 19 islands in the Truk and Ponape districts and apprehended a Japanese
fishing vessel for violating the territorial waters of the Trust Territories at
Ngatik Island. Tacoma returned to
Guam on 1 September and remained there until early November.
On 5 November
1971, Tacoma left Guam with her
sister ship and class leader, the patrol gunboat USS Asheville (PG-84), and headed (via Subic Bay) back to Vietnam. On
29 November, Tacoma and Asheville relieved the gunboats Crockett (PG-88) and Welch (PG-93) and resumed “Market Time”
operations by blockading and intercepting communist coastal supply shipments
off the coast of Vietnam. After almost two months of patrolling the Vietnamese
coastline, Tacoma left Cam Ranh Bay
on 26 January 1972 for a visit to Bangkok, Thailand. After arriving in Bangkok,
the ship welcomed officers of the Royal Thai Navy on board for tours of the
ship. On 3 February, Tacoma resumed
coastal surveillance patrols along the coast of Vietnam. In late March,
troubles with the ship’s starboard main engine forced her to return to Subic
Bay for repairs. Tacoma remained
there from 29 March to 24 May and then returned to Guam on 31 May.
After she
returned to Guam, Tacoma began three
months of sea trials, independent exercises, restricted availabilities, and
inspections. On 14 October 1972, Tacoma
headed back to Vietnam along with Asheville.
From 20 October to 15 December, Tacoma
completed two patrols along the coast of Vietnam, and made a brief visit to
Bangkok in mid-November. On 15 December, Tacoma
and Asheville left Vietnam and
returned to Subic Bay in the Philippines, staying there from 18 to 21 December.
The two gunboats then departed for Guam, arriving there on 28 December.
For the first
three months of 1973, Tacoma
conducted naval exercises while based at Guam. In April, Tacoma underwent an overhaul at Apra, which was completed two
months later. In late June and early July, Tacoma
conducted sea trials and completed various drills. Then on 12 September, Tacoma was given the task of “shadowing”
or following a Soviet submarine tender and fleet submarine which were operating
in the vicinity of the northern Marianas Islands. Tacoma returned to Apra on 18 September and completed additional
sea trials on 27 October. On 5 November, she began another patrol of the
eastern Caroline Islands, returning to Guam on 24 November. From 11 to 16
December, Tacoma made Christmas holiday
port visits to the northern Marianas Islands.
After
completing some repairs and naval exercises at Guam, Tacoma left Apra on 13 February 1974 for a three-month cruise. In
late February, she participated in exercises with the carriers Midway (CVA-41) and Oriskany (CVA-34) and the gunboat Marathon (PG-89). In March, Tacoma visited Singapore and then steamed
along the Malaysian coastline. Later that month, the ship dropped anchor at
Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei on the northern coast of Borneo. After a two-day
layover at Subic Bay, Tacoma visited Taiwan
and then returned to Guam on 27 May.
Tacoma left Guam on 21 June 1974 and headed
back to the United States. After reaching Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 3 July, Tacoma left five days later and reached
San Diego on 15 July. On 1 August, Tacoma
steamed south along the coast of California and Mexico, stopped at Acapulco for
two days, and reached the Panama Canal Zone on 17 August. After transiting the
Panama Canal on 22 August, she headed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The gunboat went
on to Port Everglades, Florida, and then reached her new home port at Little Creek,
Virginia, on 2 September.
From 14 April
to 30 June 1975, Tacoma completed an
overhaul at Norfolk, Virginia. After undergoing several weeks of refresher
training, on 3 September Tacoma began
her final mission, serving as a training unit for Royal Saudi Arabian naval
personnel. While serving as a training ship, Tacoma sailed along the east coast of the United States and in the
Caribbean. The gunboat continued being used as a training ship until she was
decommissioned on 30 September 1981at the Naval Amphibious Base at Little
Creek. USS Tacoma received two battle
stars for her service during the Vietnam War.
On 1 May 1983, Tacoma was leased to the Colombian Navy
as a fast attack craft and renamed ARC (Armada de la
República de Colombia) Quitasueño (P 112). The ship
was formally transferred to the government of Colombia on 20 September 1995.
ARC Quitasueño was subsequently transferred to the Colombian Coast Guard
where she remains in service to this day.
