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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive
Patches contributed by Mike Smolinski

USCGC Glacier (WAGB-4)
ex
 USS Glacier (AGB-4) (1955 - 1966)

International Radio Call Sign:
November - Alpha - Alpha - Oscar
 NAAO
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from left to right
Navy Unit Commendation - National Defense Service Medal - Antarctic Service Medal
Glacier Class Icebreaker:
  • Laid down, 3 August 1953, at Ingalls Shipbuilding, Corp., Pascagoula, MS.
  • Launched, 27 August 1954
  • Commissioned USS Glacier (AGB-4), 27 May 1955, CDR. E .H. Mater in command
  • Decommissioned, transferred to the Coast Guard, 30 June 1966
  • Recommissioned as USCGC Glacier (WAGB-4)
  • Struck from the Naval Register, 1 July 1966
  • Decommissioned by the Coast Guard, 7 July 1987
  • Transferred to the MARAD for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay, Benecia, CA
  • Final Disposition, to serve as a museum ship at Bridgeport, CT.
    Specifications:
    Displacement 8,650 t.
    Length 310'
    Beam 74'
    Draft 29'
    Speed 16 kts.
    Complement 16 Officers, 232 Enlisted
    Air Detachment Complement 4 Officers, 10 Enlisted
    Aircraft two helicopters
    Armament one twin 5"/38 dual purpose gun mount
    three twin 3"/50 dual purpose gun mounts
    Propulsion ten Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines in three engine rooms connected through Main Control to two General Electric electric propulsion motors
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    USS Glacier (AGB-4)
    Glacier 95k USS Glacier (AGB-4) schematic drawing.
    US Navy photo from "All Hands" magazine, December 1956    		 Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
    Glacier 118k USS Glacier (AGB-4) underway, date and location unknown.
    US Navy photo from "All Hands" magazine, September 1955    		 Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
    Glacier 114k USS Glacier (AGB-4) underway, 8 November 1955, location unknown.
    US Navy photo # NH 67733, Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969, from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Glacier 179k USS Glacier (AGB-4) heavily encrusted with ice while underway in the Antarctic, date unknown.
    US Navy photo from "All Hands" magazine, December 1956    		 Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
    Glacier 259k In March of 1959, USS Glacier (AGB-4) after several days of ramming and pounding the six to fifteen foot ice-pack off Breid Bay, Antarctica, frees the Belgian Antarctic expedition ship. Polarhaf. Polarhaf had been hemmed in by the ice for over a month and a half and had drifted with the ice over 150 miles before Glacier was able to free her.
    US Navy photo    		 Tommy Trampp
    Glacier 50k USS Glacier (AGB-4) underway at Boston, August 1960 © Richard Leonhardt
    Glacier 99k USS Glacier (AGB-4) deep in the ice while providing support for Deep Freeze 60 (1959-60). Glacier succeeded in making the deepest penetration south in the Bellinghausen Sea ever make by a ship--71.53° south latitude and 95.44.2° west longitude--and landed a small party on Turston Peninsula. It was the first time in recorded history that man had ever set foot on this previously unknown stretch of antarctic terrain.
    US Navy photo from "All Hands" magazine, April 1960.    		 Stanley C. Svec
    Glacier 106k USS Glacier (AGB-4) leaving Norfolk, VA. for Operation "Deep Freeze", circa early-1961.
    US Navy photo for "All Hands" magazine, April 1961.    		 Stanley C. Svec
    Glacier 75k USS Glacier (AGB-4) moored pierside outboard of another icebreaker at Boston, June 1961 © Richard Leonhardt
    Glacier 124k USS Glacier (AGB-4) moored pierside at Boston, November 1962 © Richard Leonhardt
    Glacier 85k USS Glacier (AGB-4) at Boston, September 1964 © Richard Leonhardt
    Glacier 31k USS Glacier (AGB-4) underway while breaking ice, date and location unknown. Marc Schenck
    Burton Island/Atka/Glacier 98k From left to right; USS Burton Island (AGB-1), USS Atka (AGB-3) and USS Glacier (AGB-4) pushing an iceberg out of the channel near McMurdo Station, Antarctica, 29 December 1965.
    US Navy photo from DANFS.    		 Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
    USCGC Glacier (WAGB-4)
    Glacier 55k USCGC Glacier (WAGB-4) underway, date and location unknown. Robert Hurst
    Burton Island 36k USCGC Glacier (WAGB-4), followed by USCGC Burton Island (WAGB-283), and USCGC Southwind (WAGB-280) as they crush a path through heavily iced McMurdo Sound, in the Antarctic for cargo ships to follow to the main base at Hut Point, Ross Island, during "Operation Deep Freeze", 1969.
    US Coast Guard photo # GAP1-01-00-69; 1969    		 Robert Hurst
    Glacier 65k USCGC Glacier (WAGB-4) being assisted by an unidentified tug, date and location.
    US Coast Guard photo.    		 Robert Hurst
    Glacier 24k USCGC Glacier (WAGB-4) underway, date and location.
    US Coast Guard photo.    		 Robert Hurst
    Glacier 22k USCGC Glacier (WAGB-4) at Boston, September 1964. Ken Laesser
    Glacier 70k USCGC Glacier (WAGB-4) underway, date and place unknown. Randy Ward
    Glacier 102k USCGC Glacier (WAGB-4) underway, circa 1970s, location unknown.
    US Coast Guard photo.    		 Robert Hurst
    Glacier 181k USCGC Glacier (WAGB-4) underway, circa 1980s off Portsmouth, England.
    Chris Howell owned slide.    		 Chris Howell, SOUTHLAND SHIP STORES LIMITED, Port of BLUFF, NEW ZEALAND
    Glacier 88k USCGC Glacier (WAGB-4) approaching Winter Quarters Bay harbor at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. A cargo vessel is seen in the left foreground docked at a floating ice pier. It appears that the cargo ship has just arrived at the dock. Not having tugboat assistance, a ship would typically first make a landing with its bow against the pier. The freighter then reverses its engine after securing a bow line to the dock, so as to "warp" the stern or rear of the ship against the pier.
    US Coast Guard photo.    		 Robert Hurst
    USS Glacier Operation Deep Freeze Patches
    Glacier 34k USS Glacier (AGB-4) "Operation Deep Freeze" Patch Mike Smolinski
    Glacier 23k USS Glacier (AGB-4) "Operation Deep Freeze" Patch Mike Smolinski

    For more photos and information about USS / USCGC Glacier, see;
  • Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
  • USS Glacier (AGB-4) Association
  • The Glacier Society
  • LTjg. Bernard Schenck Glacier Photo Collection submitted by Marc Schenck
  • Commanding Officers
    • Crew Contact And Reunion Information
    U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation - Navy Log
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    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
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    Last Updated 10 February 2012