A hundred and one American military vessels were in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack. The only one still in active service is the Coast Guard cutter Taney (WHEC-37), a "secretary class” ship commissioned in 1936 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
Before World War II, she made routine patrols from her home port at Honolulu. On 1 November 1941, she and the rest of the Coast Guard came under Navy command. The cutter was serving on antisubmarine patrol as the Japanese carrier fleet moved undetected into attack position. On 7 December, the Taney was berthed at civilian Pier 6 in Honolulu Harbor, a location her skipper, Commander Louis B. Olson, feared vulnerable to saboteurs who might seize the ship and turn her guns on a nearby power plant.
The first inkling the American forces had of the Japanese attack was the sinking of a midget submarine at 0645 by the destroyer Ward (DD-139). Because the Taney alternated antisubmarine patrol duties with the Ward and was on two-hour standby, the Taney was soon notified of the sinking. Little more than half an hour after the Ward dropped depth charges, the Taney's officer of the deck phoned Olson, who was still at breakfast.
On board ship, a feeling of urgency prevailed, with the commanding officer, usually a stickler for proper dress, still fastening his stiff white collar as he reached the bridge. His later report observed, "The anti-aircraft battery as well as all other guns were ready to fire with their full crew and three officers at their stations within four minutes [after the first antiaircraft fire was sighted]. The remaining officers, with one exception, were aboard less than ten minutes later.”
The Taney’s early readiness for battle was a result of the prompt telephone call and a lucky accident: her ammunition had been placed in ready service boxes Saturday night so it would be ready for use at a scheduled gunnery practice Monday morning- Olson didn’t wait for orders to shoot. "Between 0901 and 0908 and between 0915 and 0918 opened fire on scattering formations of enemy aircraft at a high altitude passing over the harbor from west to east, using #4 and #5 3" guns ... but fire failed to reach planes,” continued his report.
From their isolated position, the men on board the cutter could see antiaircraft fire and clouds o dense smoke from Pearl Harbor, but they had no idea of the extent of the disaster until evening- Because the Japanese planes concentrated on "battleship row,” most of the action was beyond reach of the Taney’s guns despite her readiness for combat. However, the foe occasionally came within reach.
"At 1135,” said Olsen’s report, "opened fire with #3 gun on a small formation of enemy planes which had passed over the city from north to south and were almost overhead at time of firing.” Soon, the Taney had an even more promising opportunity: "At 1158, a formation of five enemy planes approached the vessel directly from the south- southeast over the harbor entrance on what appeared to be a glide bombing or strafing attack on this vessel or more probably a bombing attack on the power plant which is located north of vessel’s berth.”
The firepower which the skipper had feared might be turned on the power plant now saved it. A barrage of fire put up ahead of the flight by 3-inch guns and .50-caliber machine guns rocked the planes, which swerved up and away. Tracers caught the wings and tail of one plane—the Taney’s first hit of the war.
Olson took pride in his ship’s performance, pointing out, "This vessel had had no opportunity to fire anti-aircraft practice. . . . The officers and crew bore themselves well although most members of the crew had had no training except drill and had never seen anything above a .50 caliber fired.”
From 8 to 14 December, the cutter patrolled the harbor entrance, being rewarded by a persistent oil slick after dropping depth charges on one submarine. The Taney was under way for 88 of the first 98 days of the war, putting into port only long enough to be replenished. She remained on escort and patrol duties in the Pacific until she arrived at Boston in March 1944 for installation of a combat information center to adapt her for hazardous Atlantic convoy escort duty.
In January 1945, the Taney was converted again, this time to an amphibious force flagship equipped With special communication facilities. In her new role she would meet the toughest fighting of her career. In the battle of Okinawa, she was under fire by an estimated minimum of 1,400 Japanese aircraft on more than 250 occasions during some of the heaviest kamikaze attacks of the war.
During one 45-day period, she went to general quarters 119 times, with her crew remaining at battle stations for as long as nine hours at a time. Her exposed position insured more than her share of action, but she was equal to it. She is credited with destroying four suicide planes, assistance in downing a number of others, and shooting down a two-engine bomber only moments before it could crash into a Victory ship. Despite the havoc she inflicted on the enemy, the dauntless little vessel sustained no major damage herself, surviving to fight in two more wars.
Reconverted into a cutter and homeported in Alameda, the Taney’s peacetime duties have been on ocean station, search and rescue, and Alaskan fisheries patrols. She left her service there twice, the first tour from 1950-53 as a communications and meteorological support ship during the Korean War.
In 1969, came a ten-month tour with Operation Market Time off Vietnam, where the Taney furnished naval gunfire and logistics support and prevented infiltration of enemy contraband and personnel. Spunky as ever, she damaged or destroyed six enemy structures and five bunkers and caused two secondary explosions in less than one hour of furious shelling.
In 1972, she headed for an East Coast home port. Today, operating from the new Coast Guard Support Center at Portsmouth, Virginia, she mans the last ocean weather station, Hotel, at 38° N, 71° W.1 In addition to oceanographic work, the Taney is on standby for search and rescue and backs up smaller Coast Guard vessels which seize foreign boats suspected of illegal fishing.
At 40, this last survivor’s trim modern lines and beautiful proportions belie her years. Commander Joseph J. Wicks, a recent commanding officer, attributes her longevity to the fact that she was built over scantling and speaks admiringly of the ship’s "beautiful bottom—not a wrinkle on it.” And, thanks to her luck and pluck, there are no topside scars or "wrinkles” despite her many tangles with the Japanese three decades ago.
1 Lieutenant Michael R. Adams, USCG, "Ocean Weather Station Hotel: A Stormy Address,” U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, April 1975, pp. 100-102.