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USS Falcon (AM-28/ASR-2) 

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Falcon (AM-28/ASR-2) 

USS Falcon (Minesweeper No. 28) was launched 7 September 1918 by Gas Engine & Power Co., & C. L. Seabury Co., Morris Heights, N.Y.; sponsored by Mrs. W. J. Parslow; and commissioned on 12 November 1918, Lieutenant B. E. Rigg in command.

From December 1918 to May 1919, USS Falcon (Minesweeper No. 28) served on temporary duty in the 4th Naval District as a lightship. For 2 months she aided in clearing the North Sea of the vast number of mines laid there in World War I, returning to Charleston, S.C., 28 November 1919. USS Falcon (AM-28) made a second voyage to European waters between March and August 1920, visiting Rosyth, Scotland, and Brest, France, and returning by way of the Azores with a captured German submarine in tow for the Canal Zone.  During that time, on 17 July 1920, she was reclassified as AM-28.

In 1925, USS Falcon (AM-28) joined the Control Force for operations in the Canal Zone, along the west coast, and in the Hawaiian Islands. She returned to home waters in September, and began her part in the salvage operations on S-51 (SS-162), in which she joined that fall and the next spring. Acting as tender as well as salvage ship for submarines, USS Falcon (AM-28) -- reclassified from AM-28 to ASR-2 on 12 September 1929 -- accompanied them to fleet exercises in waters from Maine to the Canal Zone, and conducted many operations to develop rescue techniques, as well as training divers.

Throughout World War II, aging but still able, USS Falcon (ASR-2) sailed out of New London and Portsmouth, N.H., on salvage, towing, and experimental operations. When at New London, she usually served as flagship for Commander, Submarine Force, Atlantic Fleet. Her only deployment from New England waters during the war came between July and October 1943, when USS Falcon (ASR-2) conducted diving operations and laid moorings in the anchorage at Argentia, Newfoundland. One of her most important activities during the war was training divers, search, salvage, and rescue workers to man newer submarine rescue ships. USS Falcon (ASR-2) was decommissioned at Boston 18 June 1946, and sold 12 March 1947.

For a complete history of USS Falcon (AM-28/ASR-2) please see its DANFS page.