Builder: Brown Shipbuilding Corporation, Texas
Commissioned: 15 May 1943
Decommissioned: 3 May 1946
Disposition: Transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal on 23 June 1947.
Length: 158' 6" oa
Beam: 23' 3"
Draft: 2' 8" (forward), 5' 3" (aft -- beaching condition)
Displacement: 216 tons (light); 234 tons (beaching condition); 389 tons (full load)
Propulsion: 8 x GM diesels; twin shafts (4 diesels per shaft); 1,600 hp; twin variable-pitch propellers
Range: 4,000 @ 12 knots
Top Speed: 15.5 knots
Complement: 3 officers, 21 enlisted
Troops: 188
Cargo capacity: 75 tons
Initial armament: 4 x 20mm (single-mount): 1 forward, 1 amidships, 2 aft; 2 x .50 caliber; 2" plastic splinter armor on gun shields, conning tower, and pilot house.
Commanding Officers
LT Robert J. Read, USCG (Jan. 1943-Jan. 1944)
LT Moise H. Weil, USCGR
LTJG Pierce B. Uzzell, USCGR
LTJG Albert H. Brodkin, USCGR
LT Ben E. Stone, USCGR
History: Flotilla 4 / 10 / 35, Group 104, Division 208
The Coast Guard-manned USS LCI(L)-350 was commissioned at Orange, Texas, on 15 May 1943 under the command of LT Robert J. Read, USCG. She was assigned to LCI(L) Flotilla 4. After undergoing shakedown and training exercises, she sailed across the Atlantic in company with the other LCI(L)s of the flotilla and participated in the North African occupation in Tunisia, from 1 June to 9 July 1943. She then landed troops during the invasion of Sicily on 9 July 1943 and the landings at Salerno on 9 September 1943. She then sailed for England as part of the same flotilla, now renamed Flotilla 10, in preparation for the invasion of Normandy.
She arrived at Plymouth, England on 3 November 1943, where for the next seven months she was engaged in amphibious training on the beaches of Southern England preparatory to the Normandy Invasion. She disembarked troops on Utah Beach on D-day, 6 June 1944, and for a month thereafter was engaged in transporting troops across the channel and in other duties.
She departed Falmouth on 5 October 1944, arriving in Charleston, South Carolina on October 24th, for a month and a half availability for overhaul and repair. On 26 December 1944, after some days of amphibious training for a mew crew of officers and men at Little Creek, Virginia and Solomons Island, Maryland. She departed Norfolk for San Diego, California via Key West and the Canal Zone. Here from 24 January to 3 April 1945, she underwent amphibious training at the Naval Repair Base. She departed San Diego on April 3rd and stopping at Pearl Harbor, Eniwetok, Guam and Ulithi, reached Okinawa on 29 May 1945.
Departing for Kerama Rhetto she was on smoke station daily until 14 July 1945, when she departed for Kenmu Wan, Okinawa, for similar duty. On the 23rd she took up screening duty in Buckner Bay, Okinawa. She left Okinawa on 8 September 1945, and reached Wakayama on September 11th. Here she began destroying mines on Kii Suido but was damaged in a typhoon by going aground on September 17th-18th, and was laid up for repairs until December 21st, 1945. She departed Wakayama on December 21st, for home, arriving at San Pedro on 14 March 1946, via Kagoahima, Saipan, Eniwetok and Pearl Harbor. Here she was decommissioned on 3 May 1946.
The LCI(L)-350 earned six battle stars for her service in World War II. All LCI(L)s of Flotilla 10 were retroactively awarded the Coast Guard Unit Commendation for their service in the invasion of Normandy.
Sources
LCI(L) file, Coast Guard Historian's Office.
United States Coast Guard. The Coast Guard At War. V. Transports and Escorts. Vol. 2. Washington: Public Information Division, Historical Section, U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, May 1, 1949, pp. 117-130.