Builder: Brown Shipbuilding Corporation, Orange, Texas
Commissioned: 8 February 1943
Decommissioned: 26 March 1946
Disposition: Sold on 9 November 1946, fate unknown.
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
LTJG William K. Scammel, Jr., USCG
LTJG G. H. Herrick, USCG
LT Samuel R. Underwood, USCGR
History: Flotilla 4 / 10 / 35, Group 103, Division 205
The Coast Guard-manned USS LCI(L)-320 was commissioned February 8, 1943. Proceeding, after shakedown and training and assignment to LCI(L) Flotilla 4, to North Africa she took part in the Sicilian occupation on July 9 July 1943 and the landings at Salerno on September 9, 1943. She then proceeded to England with the other LCIs of her Flotilla (which was re-designated LCI(L) Flotilla 10) where she arrived November 3, 1943. Then she began training for the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, in which she participated by landing troops at Utah Beach. After acting as channel guide for LCTs until October 5, 1944, she left Falmouth for Charleston, South Carolina.
After undergoing repairs and alterations at Savannah, Georgia, she returned to Charleston for inspection and on the 15th departed for training at Little Creek, Virginia and Solomon's Island, Maryland. On the 28th she departed for San Diego, via Key West and the Canal Zone. She remained at San Diego in training until April 3, 1945, when she departed for Pearl Harbor.
Departing Pearl Harbor April 20, 1945, she reached Okinawa May 28, 1945, via Eniwetok, Guam, Ulithi and Leyte. Anchoring at Kerama Rhetto she made smoke nightly, making eight trips in June to Hagushi, Okinawa to transfer freight. A trip to Nakagusuku Wan, Okinawa was made on June 15, 1945. This activity continued until July 10, 1945, when she departed for Buckner Bay to carry mail to Chimu Wan and return until September 8, 1945.
On September 8, 1945, she departed Okinawa for Wakayama, Japan, where she engaged in mine destruction in Kii Suido from September 11th until October 19th, 1945. Proceeding to Sasebo she was dispatched on October 26, 1945, to the East China Sea on operation "Klondike," mine destruction, which duty continued, until November 7, 1945, when she returned to Sasebo.
She departed Sasebo November 25, 1945, for home, via Saipan, Pearl Harbor and San Diego, arriving January 17, 1946. She was decommissioned at San Pedro March 26, 1946.
The LCI(L)-320 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.