1 × Mk96 25 mm cannon/40mm grenade launcher (Refit)
USS Tempest (PC-2) is the second of the Cyclone-class of United States Navy coastal patrol ships, named for various weather phenomena. She was transferred to the US Coast Guard as USCGC Tempest (WPC-2), on 1 October 2004, and placed in 'Commission Special' status until December 2005, when she was formally commissioned as a Coast Guard cutter. She was returned to the US Navy on 22 August 2008.
Tempest steamed from Little Creek in company with Cyclone on 24 May 1994, and patrolled the Haitian coast for over three months during Operation Support Democracy as the Haitians agreed to allow the Americans to land peacefully, operating at times with Navy SEAL Teams 4 and 8 and Special Boat Unit 20. On 6 July, amphibious assault shipInchon sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, in response to the crisis. Another amphibious assault ship, Wasp relieved Inchon in Haitian waters on 17 August. The crisis escalated the following month, however, prompting an enlarged response by a multinational force that included the aircraft carriersAmerica and Dwight D. Eisenhower. About 1,800 soldiers of the US Army's XVIII Airborne Corps embarked on board Dwight D. Eisenhower. The US transferred peacekeeping functions to international forces on 31 March 1995.[3]
The Coast Guard acquired five of the Navy's Cyclone-class patrol ship beginning on 1 October 2004. The Coast Guard initiated the action because of its aging fleet, increased operational hours following the terrorist attack on 9/11, delays in delivery of the converted 123-foot patrol boats, and the continued deployment of 110-foot cutters to the Persian Gulf, all of which created a gap in patrol boat availability. The transfer immediately lessened shortfalls in patrol boat hours. The Navy and Coast Guard signed an agreement in August 2004, that allowed five ships to be under the operational command of the Coast Guard. Two of the five ships were scheduled to be returned to the Navy in 2008; the remainder in 2011.[3]
The Memorandum of Understanding directed the Navy to retain ownership as well as the responsibility for all life cycle management/maintenance, depot management, and casualty corrective service through 2008. The Coast Guard assumed the "responsibility for crew assignment, cutter funding, retrofitting, operation and management." Tempest was decommissioned and transferred to the Coast Guard, which reclassified her as WPC-2, on September 30, 2004. The Coast Guard operated her until 22 August 2008, when she was returned to the Navy.[3]
This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.