USS Crockett (PG-88)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Crockett and RV Rachel Carson.

The second USS Crockett (PGM-88/PG-88) was a Asheville-class gunboat in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War.

History
United States
Name	USS Crockett (PG-88)
Namesake	Crockett, California
Builder	Tacoma Boatbuilding Company
Launched	4 June 1966
Commissioned	24 June 1967
Decommissioned	1 October 1976
Stricken	15 December 1976
Fate	Transferred to EPA, 1977, Scrapped c. 1986
General characteristics
Class & type	Asheville-class gunboat
Displacement	245 long tons (249 t)
Length	164 ft 6 in (50.14 m)
Beam	23 ft 11 in (7.29 m)
Draft	5 ft 4 in (1.63 m)
Propulsion	CODAG 2 × 725 hp (541 kW) VT-12 875M Cummins diesel engines 1 × 1,370 shp (1,022 kW) General Electric LM 1500 gas turbine engine 2 shafts
Speed	40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph)
Complement	4 officers, 25 enlisted
Armament	1 × 3"/50 caliber gun 1 × 40 mm gun 2 × twin .50 cal (12.7 mm) machine guns

Crockett was laid down by the Tacoma Boatbuilding Company, Tacoma, Washington, and commissioned 24 June 1967.

Homeported in San Diego, Crockett served off the coast of Vietnam as part of Operation Market Time.

Crockett transferred to the Naval Reserve Force on 1 July 1975 and was decommissioned on 1 October 1976.^[1] On 15 December 1976, she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register, and on 1 April 1977, ownership was transferred to the Environmental Protection Agency.^[2]

R/V Rachel Carson

Once transferred to the EPA, the vessel was renamed for American environmentalist Rachel Carson. At the time, it was the largest limnological vessel on the Great Lakes, and her initial use was monitoring and analyzing pollution in Lake Erie.^[3]

Rachel Carson was declared excess to EPA needs in 1982 and was transferred to the state of Illinois, and thence to the Combined Great Lakes Navy Association.^[4] In 1985 it was proposed that she be moved to Muskegon, Michigan along with USS Silversides as an exhibit in the naval museum there.^[5]

She was scrapped at around 1986.^[6]