Grumman JF-2 "Duck"
Information:
The Coast Guard obtained fourteen JF-2's for service with the first being acquired in October of 1934. Two of the Coast Guard's premiere pre-war pilots, Elmer Stone and Richard Burke, took advantage of the amphibian's excellent performance to establish two new records for speed. The JF-2's also played an instrumental role during the Coast Guard's testing of air operations on board its cutters. Two were carried experimentally on board the cutters Spencer and Taney during pre-war tests. Others were used successfully on board cutters stationed on the Greenland Patrol. The Northland's JF-2, piloted by LT John Pritchard and carrying Radioman Benjamin Bottoms, disappeared on a search and rescue mission over Greenland in November, 1942. After the war, a J2F-6 assigned to the Northwind, participated in Operation High Jump, the expedition to Antarctica in 1946 and 1947.
Those that survived the vagaries of service were transferred to the Navy, Air Force, and the War Assets Administration. Five others had been traded. V-151 was traded to the Marine Corps for a Lockheed R30-1. Four (V-135; V-141; V-144; & V-146) were traded to the Navy in exchange for four N3N-3's during the Coast Guard's pre-war increase in the number of pilot trainees entering the preliminary flight school at Charleston.
Photographs:
No caption/photo number/date; photographer unknown.
Grumman JF-2: V-144 at Port Angeles [?]; no caption/date; photographer unknown.
Grumman JF-2 painted in winter camouflage; on board USCGC Storis [?] in Greenland fjord; no caption/photo number/date; photographer unknown.
Original caption: "Crewmembers preparing and launching the DUCK. With help of the boat crane the plane is picked up from the cradle and lowered over the side. From there -- the take off" [probably on board the USCGC Eastwind] Photo No. 37; no date; photographer unknown.
Grumman J2F-6: Byrd Expedition, Antarctic, 7 January 1947; no caption/photo number; photographer unknown.
Sources:
Aircraft History File, U.S. Coast Guard Historian’s Office.
Arthur Pearcy, U.S. Coast Guard Aircraft Since 1916 (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1991), pp. 155-157.
Swanborough, Gordon & Peter M. Bowers. United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911. (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1990), pp.159-161.