RVNS Tran Quang Khai (HQ-02)

RVNS Tran Quang Khai (HQ-02) This article assumes that the authoritative Jane's Fighting Ships 1973-1974, p. 592, is correct about the ship's lineage (i.e., that she was the former USS Bering Strait (AVP-34) and USCGC Bering Strait (WAVP-382/WHEC-382) and was designated HQ-02 in South Vietnamese service; the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS) (see http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/b5/bering-strait-i.htm) and NavSource.org (see http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/43/4334.htm) agree. However, much confusion exists on these points in print and on the Web. The United States Coast Guard Historian's Office (see http://www.uscg.mil/history/webcutters/BeringStrait1948.asp) agrees that the ship was the former Bering Strait, but does not mention her South Vietnamese "HQ" designation. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1982 Part II: The Warsaw Pact and Non-Aligned Nations, p. 369, agrees that the ship was the former Bering Strait, but claims her designation in South Vietnamese service was HQ-15, a designation that Jane, p. 592, and DANFS say was assigned to RVNS Pham Ngu Lao, the former USS Absecon (AVP-23) and USCGC Absecon (WAVP-374/WHEC-374). Finally, the Inventory of VNN's Battle Ships Part 1 (see Part 1 at http://www.vnafmamn.com/VNNavy_inventory.html) claims that Tran Quang Khai (HQ-02) was the former USS Cook Inlet (AVP-36) and USCGC Cook Inlet (WAVP-385/WHEC-384), while the other sources (less DANFS, which does not mention Cook Inlet's South Vietnamese career) all agree that Cook Inlet became Tran Quoc Toan in South Vietnamese service. Even here confusion arises, however, in that Jane's, p. 592, and NavSource.org claim that HQ-02 was Tran Quang Khai and HQ-06 was Tran Quoc Toan, while Conway's, p. 369, claims that HQ-02 was Tran Quoc Toan and HQ-06 was yet another ship, Ngo Quyen, which Jane's, p. 592, and NavSource.org (see http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/43/4356.htm) both say was designated HQ-17. was a South Vietnamese frigate of the Republic of Vietnam Navy in commission from 1971 to 1975. She and her six sister ships were the largest South Vietnamese naval ships of their time.

Construction and United States Navy service 1944-1946
Tran Quang Khai was built in the United States by Lake Washington Shipyard at Houghton, Washington, as the United States Navy Barnegat-class seaplane tender USS Bering Strait (AVP-34). Commissioned in July 1944, Bering Strait served in the Central Pacific during World War II and on occupation duty in Japan postwar. She was decommissioned in June 1946 and placed in reserve.

United States Coast Guard service 1949-1971
The U.S. Navy loaned Bering Strait to the United States Coast Guard, which commissioned her in 1949 as the Casco-class Coast Guard cutter USCGC Bering Strait (WAVP-382). Reclassified as a high endurance cutter and redesignated WHEC-382 in 1966, she patrolled ocean stations in the Pacific Ocean, for nearly 22 years, reporting weather data and engaging in search-and-rescue and law-enforcement operations. During the Vietnam War, she served two tours off Vietnam, in 1967-1968 and in 1970.

Acquisition and operations
After her antisubmarine warfare equipment had been removed, Bering Strait was transferred to South Vietnam on 1 January 1971 and was commissioned into the Republic of Vietnam Navy as the frigate RVNS Tran Quang Khai (HQ-02) By mid-1972, six other former Casco-class cutters had joined her in South Vietnamese service. They were the largest warships in the South Vietnamese inventory, and their 5-inch (127-millimeter) guns were South Vietnam's largest naval guns. Tran Quang Khai and her sisters fought alongside U.S. Navy ships during the final years of the Vietnam War, patrolling the South Vietnamese coast and providing gunfire support to South Vietnamese forces ashore.

When South Vietnam collapsed at the end of the Vietnam War in late April 1975, Tran Quang Khai became a ship without a country. She fled to Subic Bay in the Philippines, packed with South Vietnamese refugees. On 22 May 1975 and 23 May 1975, a U.S. Coast Guard team inspected Tran Quang Khai and five of her sister ships, which also had fled to the Philippines in April 1975. One of the inspectors noted: "These vessels brought in several hundred refugees and are generally rat-infested. They are in a filthy, deplorable condition. Below decks generally would compare with a garbage scow."

Acquisition by the Philippines
After Tran Quang Khai had been cleaned and repaired, the United States formally transferred her to the Republic of the Philippines on 5 April 1976.

Philippine Navy service 1976-1985
The ship was commissioned into the Philippine Navy as frigate BRP Diego Silang (PF-9) on 5 April 1976. She was decommissioned in June 1985, discarded in July 1990, and probably scrapped.