After 57 years of service, three wars and more than a half-million miles of sea passing beneath the keel, the Coast Guard cutter Ironwood was decommissioned Oct. 6, 2000, during a ceremony in Kodiak, Alaska. More than 250 people gathered to bid the vessel farewell and to honor past and present crews during the solemn and, at times, humorous decommissioning ceremony.

As a part of the ceremony, Lt. Cmdr. Joanna Nunan, the last commanding officer of Ironwood, gave a farewell speech to summarize the Ironwood’s Coast Guard service. Unlike some Coast Guard vessels, such as the Bear, the Hudson and the Taney, the Ironwood didn’t have a singular event that placed it firm in the annals of history. The only clues to its travels were the awards on the cutter’s bridge wing and a thin folder containing a few historical documents. Armed with a list of previous commanding officers, Nunan began compiling a partial oral record of Ironwood’s history to include in her speech. "If Ironwood’s career had been set in a story or a movie, I never would have believed it," said Nunan.

Ironwood’s tale would be epic. It has seen eight different homeports, served in three wars and traveled more than a half-million miles. It saw the Coast Guard’s transition from the Navy during World War II back to the Treasury Department and then to the Department of Transportation. It served 14 Commandant’s of the Coast Guard, 34 commanding officers and more than 1,200 crewmembers. It participated in the space program, helped conduct nuclear test monitoring, and survived typhoons and groundings while still conducting day-to-day aids to navigation operations throughout the Pacific Ocean for almost six decades.

According to Nunan, two things set the tone for her research of the vessel’s history. "The first is not really a story; it’s a photograph that nobody can place, which made me painfully aware that we will never know the full Ironwood story," she said. The photograph was from a former commanding officer that showed the Ironwood hoisting a NASA space capsule from the water.

The second was a story about the cutter visiting the village of Shaktoolik, Alaska, far north of the cutter’s present-day operating area. While at Shaktoolik, village elder Crazy Charlie All-Eye visited the cutter. According to Nunan’s research, Crazy Charlie wasn’t pleased when all he was offered was coffee during the cutter’s visit. Their last Coast Guard visitor was the Revenue Cutter Bear under the Command of Captain Mike Healy. Healy had offered Crazy Charlie’s father something a little bit stronger than coffee and in much larger quantity during his visits.

In retirement comes the freedom to tell stories that otherwise couldn’t be told in public. The same is true for the Ironwood. On a less serious note, Nunan told some flamboyant stories of the Ironwood’s antics relayed to her by former commanding officers. In Vietnam, the Ironwood again faced many hostile environments but this time it came from an American Army general who wanted a buoy placed onto a sandbar 30 feet above the waterline. The general wanted the job done "pronto." To oblige, the Ironwood’s captain ordered the vessel to run aground on the sandbar. "It took two days and two or three tugs, and a bulldozer at the bow to get it afloat again," said Nunan.

Although it would seem almost absurd to sail a buoy tender into battle today, Ironwood is a decorated war hero. It saw action in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. It helped establish the harbor on Midway Island during World War II. It supplied loran stations throughout the South Pacific during the Korean War and also helped with ocean weather station duty. It was the last United States military vessel on active duty to have served in the Korean theatre and carry the Korean Service Medal. During its Vietnam service, the cutter’s crew even built a shore-side aid to navigation while the Missouri and its battle group shelled a nearby beach. It was also the ship that brought the first scientist back into the Marshall Islands a decade after atomic bomb tests.

The Ironwood’s long Coast Guard service has come to an end, but it isn’t through making history. The day after the decommissioning, the crew set sail for San Pedro, Calif. It is currently awaiting sale to Nigeria. Most of its crew crossed deck to the new 225-foot buoy tender Spar.

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KODIAK, Alaska - Fireman Ian Barry of Queens, N.Y. lowers the Coast Guard cutter Ironwood's commissioning pennant for the last time before the cutters decommisioning Oct. 6, 2000. The cutter was decommissioned in a ceremony at the Coast Guard Integrated Support Command Kodiak Alaska. Barry was handpicked by Rear Adm. Thomas Barrett, Commander 17th Coast Guard district to lower the pennant. The Ironwood served in World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam War, and is the only United States ship left on active duty awarded the Korean Service Medal. It is the second oldest commissioned cutter in service behind the Coast Guard cutter Storis. It also holds the distinction of being the only 180-foot buoy tender built at the Coast Guard Yard at Baltimore, Md. Photo by PA1 Keith Alholm.
KODIAK, Alaska - Lt.Cmdr. Joanna Nunan holds the City of Kodiak's proclamation declaring Oct. 6 Coast Guard cutter Ironwood day. Photo by Keith Alholm.	Ironwood currently serves as a training vessel with the U. S. Department of the Interior Jobs Corps Maritime Training Program in Astoria, Oregon. (photo courtesy of U. S. Coast Guard, 1979).	KODIAK, Alaska - The crew of the Coast Guard cutter Ironwood stands at attention during the decommisioning ceremony. Photo by Keith Alholm.

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http://www.kadiak.org/uscg/ironwood.html This page created 2001 April 13, Updated 2008 February 16