Builder: Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Texas
Commissioned: 15 February 1943
Decommissioned: 19 April 1946
Disposition: Transferred to the Maritime Commission on 13 November 1947 for disposal.
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 Gene R. Gislason, USCGR
LTJG Joel B. Beckwith, USCGR
History: Flotilla 4 / 10 / 35, Group 103, Division 205
The Coast Guard-manned USS LCI(L)-94 was was commissioned on February 15, 1943. 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. Here she landed US Army troops on Omaha Beach on the morning of "D" day, June 6, 1944. Click here to access an account written by the son of one of the Army passengers brought to Normandy on D-Day on board LCI(L)-94.
She remained in the Normandy area until October 5, 1944, directing trans-channel traffic or escorting landing craft. She departed England on October 5, 1944, for a two-month availability at Charleston Navy Yard for overhaul and repair. From there on December 15th she proceeded to Little Creek, Virginia, and Solomons Island, Maryland, for amphibious training and departed for the Pacific on December 28, 1944. Arriving at San Diego California on January 23, 1945, she was detailed to the Ship Training Group, Naval Repair Base until April 8, 1945, when she departed for Pearl Harbor arriving on the 18th.
Leaving Pearl Harbor April 20, 1945, she proceeded to Okinawa via Eniwetok, Guan and Ulithi arriving on May 30, 1945. Here she anchored at Nakagusuku Wan, making smoke for major war vessels and being almost constantly at general quarters in red alerts. On June 1, 1945, a Japanese Aichi D3A "Val" dive bomber approached within range of her guns and after 269 rounds of 20-mm ammunition the plane crashed into the water. Many other ships fired on the plane, however, and the 94 did not claim any hits. Proceeding to Kerama Rhetto on the 14th of June, she again assumed smoke screen duties and on 23 June began carrying passengers between Kerama Rhetto and Hagushi Beach. On July 16, 1945, she proceeded to Chimu Wan for smoke making, undergoing numerous calls to general quarters on red alerts all during July. Similar duty continued during August and early September.
On September 8, 1945 she departed for Wakayama, Japan to participate in mine destruction in Kii Suido. This work continued until October 19, 1945, when she departed for Sasebo, Japan. She departed Sasebo October 26, 1945 on "Operation Klondike" mine destruction in the East China Sea and remained on this detail until November 1, 1945, when she again returned to Sasebo. She departed Sasebo November 25, 1945, for Galveston, Texas, via Guam, Wake Island, Pearl Harbor, San Diego and the Canal Zone. Here she was decommissioned on April 19, 1946.
The LCI(L)-94 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.
Herbert E. Nolda with Valerie L. Vierk. Sailing the Troubled Sea: A Nebraska Boy Goes to War: The World War II Memoirs of an Enlisted Man in the United States Coast Guard. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2007.
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.