USS Fairview (EPCE(R)-850)

USS Fairview (EPCER-850) was a United States Navy PCE(R)-848-class Patrol Craft Escort (Rescue), in commission from April 1944 to May 1968. She was present at the surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay at the end of World War II.

Role
The PCER-848 class was an armed rescue ship built on the hull of the PCE (Patrol Craft Escort) by the Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Co. in Chicago, Illinois. The ships were to serve three missions: damage control / firefighting; casualty treatment / evacuation; and patrol / guardship. Each ship's hospital contained 65 beds, with a surgical suite, and X-ray facilities. The medical department consisted of a staff of 11 doctors and hospital corpsmen.

However, four of the class; PCER-847, -848, -849 and -850 were refitted and their hospital spaces converted into communications centers to support the US Army's landings in the Philippines and Japan.

Service history
The ship was laid down on 6 October 1943 by the Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Co. of Chicago, and launched on 8 February 1944. Commissioned as USS PCE(R)-850 on 17 April 1944, she was converted to a communications ship at Brisbane, Australia, in September 1944.

The ship was named USS Fairview on 15 February 1956, and was reclassified as EPCE(R)-850, an Experimental Patrol Craft Escort (Rescue) in 1959.

The ship was decommissioned on 1 May 1968, and later sold.