USS Greensboro, PF-101
Builder: American Shipbuilding Co., Cleveland, Ohio
Length: 303' 11"
Beam: 37' 6"
Draft: 12' 8" fl
Displacement: 2,230 tons
Propulsion: 2-shaft VTE, 3 boilers
Range: 9,500 nm at 12 knots
Top speed: 20 knots
Complement: 190
Armament: 3 x 3"/50; 4 x 40mm (2x2); 9 x 20mm; 1 x Hedgehog, 8 x depth charge projectors; 2 x depth charge racks. For those frigates fitted out for weather patrol duty, the after 3-inch gun was removed and a weather balloon hanger was added aft.
History:
Greensboro (PF-101), ex-PG-209, ex-MC Hull 1973 was launched under Maritime Commission contract 9 February 1944 by the American Shipbuilding Co., Cleveland, Ohio, and was towed down the Mississippi River, arriving at New Orleans on 19 September 1944. She departed for the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland on 24 September and remained there for fitting out and completion from 3 October 1944 until February 1945. She was first sponsored by Mrs. C. I. Carlson and then commissioned at Curtis Bay on 29 January 1945 under the command of LCDR Henry P. Kniskern, USCG.
Manned by a Coast Guard crew, Greensboro remained at Curtis Bay, undergoing outfitting and conversion for weather patrol duty. On 14 February she cleared Baltimore Harbor for Bermuda, stopping first for a short time at the Naval Operating Base in Norfolk, where final preparations were made for sea. The Greensboro was outward bound 18 February for Bermuda and the rigors of shakedown. From 23 February to 6 March the frigate was mainly underway carrying out the various drills and exercises prescribed. On 6 March the Shakedown Group, escorting the tender ship USS Altair (AD-11), APC-86 and APC-91, steamed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the training continued until 16 March.
Proceeding thence to Kingston, Jamaica, Greensboro escorted the SS George Washington to New York, arriving there on 21 March. She then proceeded to Boston on post-shakedown availability, arriving there on 23 March, and LCDR James S. Muzzy, USCG, relieved LCDR Kniskern as commanding officer. While in Boston she underwent further conversion to an air-sea rescue and weather patrol ship. Sailing 11 April she conducted ASW exercises out of Casco Bay, Maine, en route to Argentia, Newfoundland, arriving 22 April. She was assigned to duty with Task Force 24, where she carried out weather patrol and air search and rescue patrols. On 4 May 1945 LT H. E. Steel, USCGR, relieved LCDR Muzzy as commanding officer.
After convoying the USS Driller (YO-61) to St. John's, Newfoundland and back to Argentia, the frigate departed Argentia on 11 May for her first weather station duty. After a day on Weather Station 3 the vessel proceeded to Praia, Terceira, in the Azores, to disembark the warship's doctor who had become suddenly ill. The frigate returned to the newly established Weather Station 7, 400 miles northwest of the Azores on 19 May 1945. The Greensboro was relieved and returned to Argentia on 5 June 1945. From 23 June to 3 July 1945, she served on Weather Station 5 and then from 2 August to 22 August of that same year she served on Weather Station 2. She then sailed for Boston where she remained on availability from 28 August to 1 October 1945. From 2 October to 21 October she served on Weather Station 10. Returning to Boston on 22 October 1945, she was released from Task Force 24 and was reassigned as a unit of Task Force 26 for operations based on Recife, Brazil, in support of Army Air Corps and Army Transport Command redeployment in the South Atlantic.
The frigate arrived at Recife on 24 November 1945, via Trinidad and patrolled Weather Station 12 between 7 and 21 December 1945. Returning to Recife Greensboro departed for Trinidad, Bermuda, and Argentia, arriving at the latter port on 17 January 1946. After patrolling Weather Station 3 from 21 January to 12 February she returned to Boston for an inport period, extending from 17 February to 18 March 1946. She then patrolled Weather Station 7 from 24 March to 14 April, remaining at Ponta de Gada, Azores, until 2 May, and returned to Boston on 8 May 1946.
She then proceeded to New York on 11 May, where she remained until she was sent to New Orleans on 28 August 1946 and was decommissioned on 11 September 1946. Her name was struck from the Navy List 23 April 1947 and she was sold for scrapping 22 April 1948 to the Southern Shipbuilding Co., New Orleans.
Sources:
The Coast Guard At War, Transports and Escorts, Vol. V, No. 1.
Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922-1946. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1992, pp. 148-149.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. III, p. 150.