(AKL-398; displacement 1,025 (full load); length 180-; beam 38-; draft 13-; complement 28; speed 13 knots)
A Coast Guard name retained.
Redbud, a lighthouse tender (WAGL-398) built in 1943 for the U.S. Coast Guard by the Marine Iron & Shipbuilding Co., Duluth, Minn., was acquired by the Navy 18 March 1949; redesignated AKL-398 on 31 March 1949; converted at Long Beach, Calif.; and commissioned 23 July 1949, Lt. Comdr. F. E. Clark in command.
Following shakedown, Redbud departed Long Beach 3 August 1949 and headed for the east coast. On 18 September she arrived at Boston, whence she continued on to Argentia to join the support force for the construction and maintainance [sic; maintenance] of air bases and early warning installations in the North Atlantic and Arctic areas. Through the end of the year and into 1950, she operated along the southwestern coast of Greenland, adding more northerly ports and those on the Canadian side of Baffin Bay to her schedule during the warmer months. Until 28 February 1952, she continued her support of Arctic bases, rehabilitating navigational aids, activating and repairing submarine petroleum lines, and delivering bulk petroleum and general cargo, as a commissioned U.S. Navy ship. Then decommissioned, she was simultaneously placed in service, assigned to MSTS, and, with a civil service crew, returned to sealift support for the Northeast Command (SUNEC).
In 1956 Redbud's schedule was altered to include winter (November through March) supply runs to the Texas Towers which alternated with warmer weather (April through October) SUNEC duties. Maintaining that schedule through the 1960s, her primary mission continued to be her SUNEC missions, and, until 1970, she was usually the first MSTS ship to arrive in the far north to open a new resupply season. On 10 November, she was returned to the Coast Guard and was struck from the Navy list ten days later. She was transferred to the Republic of the Philippines on I March 1972 under a grant-in-aid. She serves the Philippines as Kalinga (AG-89).
23 September 2005
