User talk:Christopher J. Whiteley

USCGC. Westwind (WAGB-281) was laid down by the Western Pipe & Steel Co., San Pedro, CA. on Aug. 24th, 1942 and launched on Mar. 31st, 1943. Commissionedon Sept. 18th, 1944 and served a brief tour of duty on the west coast of the United States before being decommissioned and transferred to the USSR, under the Lend Lease Program, on Feb. 21st, 1945 at Seattle, Washington. Renamed the "SEVERNY POLYUS" by the Soviets, the icebreaker remained in Soviet hands until 1951. She was found abandoned and adrift in the arctic iceflow. Anything of value that could be taken was gone and she had become a useless hulk. Released by the Russians Dec. 19th, 1951 and towed to Bremerhaven, Germany to the custody of the U.S. Navy, On Feb. 1st, 1952 she was commissioned into the Navy as USS. Westwind (AGB-6) and taken in tow to the Boston Naval Shipyard in Boston, Mass. Westwind was decommissioned and transferred to the custody of the Boston Naval Shipyard on Mar. 13th, 1952. She was transferred back to the U.S. Coast Guard on Mar. 19th, 1952 and after extensive repair was recommissioned back into the CG. on Sept. 22nd, 1952. In the 50's and 60's she took part in both Arctic and Antarctic operations. In 1969 she was deployed to the Great Lakes to aid in :Breaking Out the Lakes". On Oct. 4th, 1983 Westwind deployed on what was to be her last mission as an Arctic Icebreaker. In 1986, she was towed to the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, MD. for repair and renovations. Do to the cuts in Coast Guard funding she was decommissioned on Feb. 29th, 1988. Westwind was sold and towed to a South Korean Shipbreaker to be dismantled.