Grand Forks (PF-11)
1944-1946
A city in North Dakota.
(PF-11: displacement 1,246; length 304'; beam 38'; draft 12'; speed 20 knots; complement 141; armament 3 3-inch, 4 40 millimeters, 9 20 millimeter, 2 depth charge tracks, 8 depth charge projectors, 1 depth charge projector (hedgehog); classTacoma)
Grand Forks (PF-11) was launched at Richmond, Calif., by Kaiser Co., on 27 November 1943; sponsored by Mrs. T. H. Thoreson; and was commissioned on 18 March 1944, Lt. Cmdr. Christian W. Peterson, USCG, in command.
After shakedown, Grand Forks sailed from San Francisco, Calif., on 7 August 1944 to take station in the Northern Pacific off the California coast as a plane guard ship, returning to San Francisco on 3 September. She continued on that duty until decommissioning, spending an average of three weeks at sea and two in port.
Late in the night of 11 October 1944, Grand Forks picked up a distress call from a Consolidated PB2Y Coronado flying boat about to make an emergency landing. Sending up flares and star shells to guide the plane , Grand Forks rescued 15 crewmen and passengers, as well as 114 sacks of mail.
While in port from guard duty on 31 May 1945, Grand Forks was toured by several members of the American delegation to the San Francisco Peace Conference, including Secretary of State and Mrs. Edward Stettinius, Nelson Rockefeller, and Alger Hiss.
She continued on plane guard duty until 19 March 1946 and then sailed from San Francisco to Charleston, S.C., where she was decommissioned on 16 May 1946.
Grand Forks was stricken from the Navy Register on 19 June 1946; sold to J. C. Berkwit & Co. of New York 19 May 1947, and scrapped 1 November 1947.
