USCGC Eastwind (WAGB-279)

USCGC Eastwind (WAGB-279) was a Wind-class icebreaker that was built for the United States Coast Guard. Completed in time to see action in World War II, she continued in USCG service under the same name until decommissioned in 1968.

Construction
Eastwind was the second of five Wind-class of icebreakers built for the United States Coast Guard. Her keel was laid down on 23 June 1942 at Western Pipe and Steel Company shipyards in San Pedro. She was launched on 6 February 1943 and commissioned on 3 June 1944.

Her hull was of unprecedented strength and structural integrity, with a relatively short length in proportion to the great power developed, a cut away forefoot, rounded bottom, and fore, aft and side heeling tanks. Diesel electric machinery was chosen for its controllability and resistance to damage.

Eastwind, along with the other Wind-class icebreakers, was heavily armed for an icebreaker due to her design being crafted during World War II. Her main battery consisted of two twin-mount 5 in (130 mm) deck guns. Her anti-aircraft weaponry consisted of three quad-mounted Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft autocannons and six Oerlikon 20 mm autocannons. She also carried six K-gun depth charge projectors and a Hedgehog as anti-submarine weapons. After the war her aft 5” mount was replace by a helicopter deck, by 1951 her forward mount had also been removed.

History
Eastwind ferried 200 US army troops which captured the last German weather station in Greenland, Edelweiss II, on 4 October 1944. She also seized the German trawler Externsteine, which was ressuplying the base. Externsteine was later commissioned in the US Coast Guard as USCGC Eastbreeze and later commissioned as the US Navy ship  USS Callao.

In 1952, during an Arctic Cruise, for the first time were launched stratospheric balloons from the deck of the ship. The balloon carried scientific instruments to perform cosmic ray studies and rockets to be fired once in the stratosphere (Rockoons). Captain Oliver A. Peterson, Commanding.

In 1956 and 1956 she participated in Antarctic exploration activities. Captain Oliver A. Peterson, Commanding.

In October 1960, as part of Operation Deep Freeze, she departed Boston, passed through the Panama Canal, crossed the Pacific, visited New Zealand and McMurdo sound. Leaving Antarctica, she traveled the Indian Ocean, came through the Suez Canal, crossed the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to return home in May 1961. This tour made the Eastwind the first cutter ever to circumnavigate the globe. Two mountains in Antarctica, Mount Schmidtman and Mount Naab, were named after her captains during this period: Captain R.D. Schmidtman, USCG commanded the vessel in 1960, and Captain Joseph Naab, Jr., USCG commanded her during 1961 and 1962.

In 1966 she left Boston MA in September for Operation Deep Freeze '67' returned April 1967. Captain William Benkert, Commanding.

After that she was assigned to operations on the Great Lakes until being sold to Sun Oil Company.

In 1972 she was sold for scrap and last seen at the breaking yards in New Jersey in 1976 or 1977.