Editing Template:USS Cocopa

{{short description|Tugboat of the United States Navy}}
{{Use American English|date=October 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=[[File:Cocopa 05.jpg|300px|USS Cocopa moored dockside. U.S. Navy photo, date and photographer unknown.]]
|Ship caption=USS ''Cocopa'' (ATF-101) at Sasebo, Japan, likely 1969 or 1972.
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=United States
|Ship flag={{USN flag|1946}}
|Ship name=USS ''Cocopa''
|Ship namesake=
|Ship ordered=
|Ship awarded=
|Ship builder=Charleston Drydock and Shipbuilding Company, Charleston, SC
|Ship original cost=
|Ship yard number=
|Ship way number=
|Ship laid down=
|Ship launched=5 October 1943
|Ship sponsor=Miss Z. Williams
|Ship christened=
|Ship completed=
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned=25 March 1944
|Ship decommissioned=30 September 1978
|Ship renamed=
|Ship reclassified=
|Ship refit=
|Ship struck=30 September 1978
|Ship homeport=
|Ship identification=ATF-101
|Ship motto=Service - Salvage - First and Finest
|Ship nickname=
|Ship honors=* 1 battle star ([[Korean War]])
* 5 campaign stars ([[Vietnam War]])
|Ship fate=Sold to Mexico, 30 September 1978
|Ship notes=
|Ship badge=
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=title
|Ship country=Mexico
|Ship flag={{Shipboxflag|Mexico|naval}}
|Ship name=ARM ''Seri''
|Ship acquired=30 September 1978
|Ship commissioned= 
|Ship recommissioned=
|Ship decommissioned= 
|Ship renamed=
|Ship reclassified=
|Ship refit=
|Ship struck= 
|Ship homeport=
|Ship identification=RE-03
|Ship motto= 
|Ship nickname=
|Ship honors= 
|Ship status=In active service as of 2017
|Ship notes=
|Ship badge=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship class={{sclass|Abnaki|tug|0}} [[Tugboat|fleet ocean tug]]
|Ship displacement={{Displacement|1,240|long|first=standard}}
|Ship length= {{convert|205|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam= {{convert|38.5|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship height=
|Ship draft= {{convert|15.33|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship depth=
|Ship decks=
|Ship ramps=
|Ship power=
|Ship propulsion=Diesel-electric, single screw, {{convert|3,600|shp|lk=in|abbr=on|0}}
|Ship speed={{convert|16.5|kn|lk=in}}
|Ship range=
|Ship boats=
|Ship complement=85
|Ship crew=
|Ship sensors=Radar
|Ship EW=
|Ship armament=* 1 × [[3"/50 caliber gun|{{convert|3|in|mm|abbr=on|0}}]] dual-purpose gun
* 2 × twin [[Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60|40 mm]] antiaircraft guns
* 2 × [[Oerlikon 20 mm cannon|20 mm]] single antiaircraft guns
|Ship armor=
|Ship notes=
}}
|}
'''USS ''Cocopa'' (ATF-101)''' was an {{sclass|Abnaki|tug|0}} [[fleet ocean tug]] that served on active duty with the [[U.S. Navy]] from 1944 to 1978, seeing action in [[World War II]], the [[Korean War]] and the [[Vietnam War]].  After thirty-four years of service, she was sold to the [[Mexican Navy]], where she was still in service as of 2009.<ref name="Navsource">{{cite web |url=http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/39/39101.htm |title=USS Cocopa (ATF-101) |website=NavSource.org |date=30 January 2009 |access-date=26 November 2009}}</ref>

==World War II==
''Cocopa'' was named after an [[Arizona]] [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indian]] [[Cocopa|tribe]].  She began her naval career with the Atlantic fleet during the waning months of World War II, making two passages across the [[Atlantic]] with [[barge]]s in tow, followed by a third passage to [[Trinidad]].  Her second [[convoy]] was attacked by a German [[U-boat]], with ''Cocopa'' barely escaping destruction.<ref name=welcomeaboard>{{cite web |url=http://photobucket.com/gallery/user/phredshome/media/bWVkaWFJZDo4MTMwMTUzNQ==/?ref=1 |title="Welcome Aboard!" |quote=Leaflet produced for sailors on USS ''Cocopa'', circa 1973–77 |website=Photobucket.com |access-date=2 November 2018}}</ref>  ''Cocopa'' was next ordered to the [[Pacific Ocean theater of World War II|Pacific theater]], witnessing the final days of the war between July and August of that year. [[V-J day]] found the ship in [[Leyte]], Philippines.<ref name="CNMI">{{cite web |url=http://www.cnmi-guide.com/history/ww2/5/ |title=The Last Surrender of World War II |website=CNMI Guide |access-date=27 November 2009}}</ref>

==Interwar service==
Following World War II, ''Cocopa'' shuttled between the Philippines, [[Shanghai]], [[Okinawa Island|Okinawa]] and [[Hong Kong]] on occupation duty, before returning to [[Puget Sound Naval Shipyard]] in January 1947 for an overhaul. From 1948–49 she plied [[Alaska]]n waters.<ref name=welcomeaboard/>

30 June 1951, having returned to the Far East, ''Cocopa'' accepted what many writers have termed the last Japanese surrender from World War II. [[Lieutenant commander (US Navy)|Lieutenant Commander]] James B. Johnson accepted the capitulation of Captain Katsusaburo Usui and nineteen other Japanese soldiers who had been living on the island of [[Anatahan]], in the [[Northern Mariana Islands]] since 12 June 1944. The ship repatriated these men and their personal effects to [[Guam]], from whence they were ultimately returned to [[Tokyo]], [[Japan]] on 6 July 1951.<ref name="CNMI"/> However, other Japanese holdouts continued to surrender over the next few decades, though in much smaller numbers.

==Korean War==
''Cocopa'' saw action in the Korean War during the summer of 1953. During this period she served off both Korean coasts; in one operation, she towed {{HMCS|Huron|G24|6}}, a [[Royal Canadian Navy]] [[destroyer]] that had [[Ship grounding|run aground]] on the island of Pang Yang-Do, just off the [[North Korea]]n coast well north of enemy-held [[Wonsan]] harbor. At the time of the armistice, she went to Wonsan to aid in the removal of a [[U.S. Marine Corps|Marine]] garrison occupying a small islet at the harbor's mouth. During the Korean War, USS ''Cocopa'' received one [[Service star|battle star]] for her service.<ref name="DANFS">{{cite DANFS |title=Cocopa |url=http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/c/cocopa.html |year=2015 |access-date=14 February 2015 |link=off }}</ref>

After the war, ''Cocopa'' conducted numerous Pacific Ocean and Alaskan cruises.  Her home port was changed from [[Pearl Harbor, Hawaii|Pearl Harbor]] to [[San Diego, California|San Diego]] in 1961.<ref name=welcomeaboard/>

==Operation Castle==
In March 1954, ''Cocopa'' was one of the ships tasked to support [[Operation Castle]], a series of high-energy (high-yield) [[nuclear test]]s by Joint Task Force SEVEN (JTF-7) at [[Bikini Atoll]]. Official reports indicated that crewmembers suffered the highest doses (2.2 [[Röntgen equivalent man|rem]]) of [[radiation]] endured by any of the navy ships present at this operation.<ref>{{cite report |title=Analysis of Radiation Exposure for Additional Naval Personnel at Operation CASTLE-Supplemental Report |url=http://www.dtra.mil/documents/ntpr/relatedpub/DNATR89256.pdf |first=Charles |last=Thomas |first2=Jerald |last2=Goetz |first3=Jeffrey |last3=Klemm |first4=Edward |last4=Ortlieb |name-list-style=amp |publisher=[[Defense Nuclear Agency]] |location=Alexandria, Virginia |date=October 1991 |access-date=14 February 2015}}</ref>

{{stack|[[File:Cocopa 09.jpg|thumb|USS ''Cocopa'' in Vietnamese waters in 1967.]]}}
==Vietnam War==
During the Vietnam War, ''Cocopa'' saw service in five campaigns: ''Advisory'' (1963), ''Vietnam Defense'' (1965), ''Counteroffensive Phase II'' (1967), ''Summer-Fall 1969'', and ''Ceasefire'' (1972).  In 1965, ''Cocopa'' hosted Detachment Charlie of [[Beach Jumpers]] Unit One, Team Twelve, operating as the "Yankee Station Special Surveillance Unit". This outfit consisted of one [[Officer (armed forces)|officer]] and five [[enlisted men]], whose mission was to jam [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[electronic intelligence]] [[Naval trawler|trawlers]] monitoring U.S. operations in the [[Gulf of Tonkin]]. Team members utilized random wave jamming with noises (including [[bagpipe]] recordings) to counteract Russian SIGINT activities.  ''Cocopa'' also assisted in towing, recovery and similar operations throughout her tours in Vietnam.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.psywarrior.com/beach.html |title=CUS Navy Beach Jumpers |website=Psywarrior.com |access-date=26 November 2009}}</ref>

==Awards==
*[[American Campaign Medal]]
*[[European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal]]
*[[Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal]])
*[[World War II Victory Medal]]
*[[Navy Occupation Service Medal]]
*[[National Defense Service Medal]] with star
*[[Korean Service Medal]] with one [[battle star]]
*[[Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal]]
*[[Vietnam Service Medal]] with five [[campaign star]]s
*[[United Nations Korea Medal]]
*[[Republic of Korea War Service Medal]]
*[[Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal]]

<ref name="DANFS"/>

==Mexican Navy service==
On 30 September 1978, ''Cocopa'' was [[Ship decommissioning|decommissioned]] and sold to [[Mexico]] under the Security Assistance Program, where she was recommissioned in the Mexican Navy as '''ARM ''Seri'' (RE-03)'''. As of 2009 the ship remains on active duty with that force.<ref name="Navsource"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* [http://www.koreanwar.org/html/units/navy/tf77.htm?set=25 Task Force 77]. Contains brief, detailed info on ''Cocopa's'' Korean War service.
* [http://jproc.ca/huron/hur_ground.html Official Damage Report of the Grounding of HMCS Huron].  Describes role of the ''Cocopa'' (referred to in this report as "the tug") in towing the damaged ''Huron''.
* {{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/c/cocopa.html}}

==External links==
* [http://nafts.com/ships-gallery/navy/atf/usscocopaatf-101/ USS ''Cocopa'']. Offers several photos from the ''Cocopa's'' service, circa 1952-78.
* [http://www.ww2incolor.com/updates?g2_itemId=241216 Last Defenders of the Japanese Empire]. Photo of 19 Japanese soldiers on Anatahan surrendering to Lt. Cmdr. J.B. Johnson, captain of the ''Cocopa''.
* [http://www.seabeecook.com/cooks/navy/typhoon1.htm My Journey to Vietnam], by Steven Karoly. Personal account by a ''Cocopa'' cook of a stormy voyage to Vietnam in 1972.
* [http://s124.photobucket.com/user/phredshome/library/Adventures%20of%20the%20Cocopa Adventures of the ''Cocopa''] Personal photographs taken by the ship's electronic technician, 1973 to 1978.

{{Abnaki class fleet ocean tug|others}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cocopa}}
[[Category:Abnaki-class tugs]]
[[Category:Ships built in Charleston, South Carolina]]
[[Category:1944 ships]]
[[Category:World War II naval ships of the United States]]
[[Category:Ships transferred from the United States Navy to the Mexican Navy]]