WPG/WAGC/WHEC-37, launched as USCGC Roger B. Taney and for most of her career called USCGC Taney (), is a United States Coast Guard high endurance cutter notable as the last warship floating which fought in the attack on Pearl Harbor. She was named for Roger B. Taney (1777–1864), who served as U.S. Attorney General, Secretary of the Treasury, and Chief Justice of the United States.

She is also one of two (out of seven total) Coast Guard cutters still afloat. Active for 50 years, Taney saw action in both theaters of combat in World War II, serving as a command ship at the Battle of Okinawa, and as a fleet escort in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. She also served in the Vietnam War, taking part in Operation Market Time. Taney was also used in drug interdiction and fisheries protection work.

She was decommissioned in 1986, and has since served as a museum ship in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, Maryland. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1988.

1936–1941

Treasury-class Roger B. Taney, Coast Guard Builders No. 68, was laid on 1 May 1935 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. She was launched on 3 June 1936 and was sponsored by Miss Corinne F. Taney. She was commissioned at Philadelphia on 24 October 1936. The Roger B. Taney departed Philadelphia on 19 December, transited the Panama Canal from 27 to 29 December, and arrived at her home port, Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, on 18 January 1937. She conducted local operations out of Honolulu through the summer of 1937. On 16 June 1937, she transferred a number of her crew for temporary duty to USCGC Itasca. The Itasca was preparing to lend navigational support to Amelia Earhart's flight around the world. In May or June 1937 Roger B. Taney name was shortened to simply Taney.

Outside another "line island cruise" in the late summer, Taney operated locally out of Honolulu into the critical fall of 1941. She conducted regular harbor entrance and channel patrols, alternating often with one of the four old destroyers of Destroyer Division 80: , , , and .

World War II

The message: "Air Raid, Pearl Harbor. This is no drill" came at 07:55 on 7 December 1941, as Japanese planes swept overhead in an attempt to cripple the Pacific Fleet. Taney, moored alongside Pier 6, Honolulu harbor, manned her anti-aircraft guns within four minutes. Officers not aboard were ordered to return and the ship readied to get underway. The ship began firing newly installed three inch guns at Japanese planes passing high overhead. The ship fired on a second and third group of attacking planes, the last of which flew over the Honolulu harbor entrance, perhaps intending to attack the power plant, and was low enough to be engaged by the 50 caliber machine guns. The Japanese planes changed course to avoid Taney's fire. Taney patrolled the waters off Honolulu for the remainder of 1941 and into 1942, conducting many depth charge attacks on suspected submarines in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack. During this time, the ship received the classification WPG-37. On 22 January 1942, the cutter departed Honolulu in company with USAT Barbara Olson, and arrived at Kanton Island on 28 January 1942. After sending a working party ashore to unload supplies, Taney screened Barbara Olson offshore until 7 February 1942, when both ships got under way to evacuate the American colony on Enderbury Island. Embarking the four colonists at 10:15 that day, Taney shelled the island and destroyed its buildings to prevent them from being used by Japanese forces. Taney subsequently escorted her merchantman consort to Jarvis Island, where she evacuated the four Interior Department colonists and burned all structures to the ground before departing. Reaching Palmyra Atoll on 12 February 1942, the ships remained there until 15 February 1942, before Taney headed back for the Hawaiian Islands, arriving at Honolulu on 5 March 1942. She made another voyage to Palmyra Island later that spring and when heading back to Hawaii, she received orders to search for survivors in the waters around Midway Island after the Battle of Midway, including a stop at the island itself.

Fate

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She was decommissioned on 7 December 1986 and turned over to the city of Baltimore, Maryland, for use as a museum ship. She is one of only two surviving vessels from the Attack on Pearl Harbor (The other being the tugboat Hoga.) Over her distinguished career, Taney received three battle stars for World War II service and numerous theater ribbons for service in World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam War.

In 2020, Taney's name was removed from the warship by the Living Classrooms Foundation as part of a worldwide series of campaigns to remove monuments and change names associated with systemic racism following the murder of George Floyd. As Chief Justice of the United States who delivered the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford case (1857) that held that African Americans were not full citizens. The change was recognized by the United States Coast Guard on June 12, 2020.

Awards

  • Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation
  • Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation
  • American Defense Service Medal
  • American Campaign Medal
  • European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one battle star
  • Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two battle stars
  • World War II Victory Medal
  • Navy Occupation Service Medal with "ASIA" clasp
  • National Defense Service Medal with one service star
  • Korean Service Medal
  • Vietnam Service Medal with three campaign stars
  • Humanitarian Service Medal
  • Vietnam Gallantry Cross with palm
  • Vietnam Civil Actions Medal with palm
  • United Nations Korea Medal
  • Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal

Taney is the subject of a 1/300 plastic scale model kit by Revell, released to the market in 1984.

Sources

References

  • USCG Cutter 37 at HistoricShips.org
  • at Maryland Historical Trust