 USSCocopa (ATF-101) at Sasebo, Japan, likely 1969 or 1972. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USSCocopa |
| Builder | Charleston Drydock and Shipbuilding Company, Charleston, SC |
| Launched | 5 October 1943 |
| Sponsored by | Miss Z. Williams |
| Commissioned | 25 March 1944 |
| Decommissioned | 30 September 1978 |
| Stricken | 30 September 1978 |
| Identification | ATF-101 |
| Motto | Service - Salvage - First and Finest |
| Honors and awards |
|
| Fate | Sold to Mexico, 30 September 1978 |
 Mexico | |
| Name | ARMSeri |
| Acquired | 30 September 1978 |
| Identification | RE-03 |
| Status | In active service as of 2017 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Abnaki-classfleet ocean tug |
| Displacement | 1,240 long tons of standard displacement |
| Length | 205 ft (62 m) |
| Beam | 38.5 ft (11.7 m) |
| Draft | 15.33 ft (4.67 m) |
| Propulsion | Diesel-electric, single screw, 3,600 shp (2,685 kW) |
| Speed | 16.5knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph) |
| Complement | 85 |
| Sensors and processing systems | Radar |
| Armament |
|
USSCocopa (ATF-101) was anAbnaki-classfleet ocean tug that served on active duty with theU.S. Navy from 1944 to 1978, seeing action inWorld War II, theKorean War and theVietnam War. After thirty-four years of service, she was sold to theMexican Navy, where she was still in service as of 2009.[1]
Cocopa was named after anArizonaIndiantribe. She began her naval career with the Atlantic fleet during the waning months of World War II, making two passages across theAtlantic withbarges in tow, followed by a third passage toTrinidad. Her secondconvoy was attacked by a GermanU-boat, withCocopa barely escaping destruction.[2]Cocopa was next ordered to thePacific theater, witnessing the final days of the war between July and August of that year.V-J day found the ship inLeyte, Philippines.[3]
Following World War II,Cocopa shuttled between the Philippines,Shanghai,Okinawa andHong Kong on occupation duty, before returning toPuget Sound Naval Shipyard in January 1947 for an overhaul. From 1948–49 she pliedAlaskan waters.[2]
30 June 1951, having returned to the Far East,Cocopa accepted what many writers have termed the last Japanese surrender from World War II.Lieutenant Commander James B. Johnson accepted the capitulation of Captain Katsusaburo Usui and nineteen other Japanese soldiers who had been living on the island ofAnatahan, in theNorthern Mariana Islands since 12 June 1944. The ship repatriated these men and their personal effects toGuam, from whence they were ultimately returned toTokyo,Japan on 6 July 1951.[3] However, other Japanese holdouts continued to surrender over the next few decades, though in much smaller numbers.
Cocopa saw action in the Korean War during the summer of 1953. During this period she served off both Korean coasts; in one operation, she towedHMCS Huron, aRoyal Canadian Navydestroyer that hadrun aground on the island of Pang Yang-Do, just off theNorth Korean coast well north of enemy-heldWonsan harbor. At the time of the armistice, she went to Wonsan to aid in the removal of aMarine garrison occupying a small islet at the harbor's mouth. During the Korean War, USSCocopa received onebattle star for her service.[4]
After the war,Cocopa conducted numerous Pacific Ocean and Alaskan cruises. Her home port was changed fromPearl Harbor toSan Diego in 1961.[2]
In March 1954,Cocopa was one of the ships tasked to supportOperation Castle, a series of high-energy (high-yield)nuclear tests by Joint Task Force SEVEN (JTF-7) atBikini Atoll. Official reports indicated that crewmembers suffered the highest doses (2.2rem) ofradiation endured by any of the navy ships present at this operation.[5]
During the Vietnam War,Cocopa saw service in five campaigns:Advisory (1963),Vietnam Defense (1965),Counteroffensive Phase II (1967),Summer-Fall 1969, andCeasefire (1972). In 1965,Cocopa hosted Detachment Charlie ofBeach Jumpers Unit One, Team Twelve, operating as the "Yankee Station Special Surveillance Unit". This outfit consisted of oneofficer and fiveenlisted men, whose mission was to jamSovietelectronic intelligencetrawlers monitoring U.S. operations in theGulf of Tonkin. Team members utilized random wave jamming with noises (includingbagpipe recordings) to counteract Russian SIGINT activities.Cocopa also assisted in towing, recovery and similar operations throughout her tours in Vietnam.[6]
On 30 September 1978,Cocopa wasdecommissioned and sold toMexico under the Security Assistance Program, where she was recommissioned in the Mexican Navy asARMSeri (RE-03). As of 2009 the ship remains on active duty with that force.[1]
Leaflet produced for sailors on USSCocopa, circa 1973–77
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.
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