USS Lookout (YAGR-2)

USS Lookout (YAGR-2/AGR-2) was a Guardian-class radar picket ship acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1954. She was reconfigured as a radar picket ship and assigned to radar picket duty in the North Atlantic Ocean as part of the Distant Early Warning Line.

Built at Panama City, Florida
Lookout (YAGR 2) was laid down by J. A. Construction Co., Panama City, Florida, as SS Claude Kitchen 5 April 1945; launched 24 May 1945; sponsored by Mrs. F. D. Burge; acquired by the Navy 13 August 1954; converted; and commissioned at Charleston, South Carolina, 5 March 1955, Lt. Comdr. Theodore E. Kreuger in command.

Radar picket duty
After shakedown off Newport, Rhode Island, Lookout was assigned to radar picket duty in the 1st Naval District. From 1956 to 1965 she operated on the Atlantic Ocean perimeter of the radar defense net established around the United States to warn of surprise air attack. On 28 September 1958 her classification was changed to AGR-2.

Lookout’s periods of 30 to 40 days at sea were alternated with inport replenishment at Davisville, Rhode Island. By the time she completed her 10th year of service in the spring of 1965, Lookout had distinguished herself in the defense of the Nation.

Decommissioning
She arrived Bayonne, New Jersey, 23 June and decommissioned there 12 July 1965. Her name was struck from the Naval Register 1 September 1965. Lookout was transferred to the Maritime Reserve Fleet and was berthed in the Hudson River, New York, where she remained until she was sold for scrap in 1970 to a scrapping firm in Spain.