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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

AO-45 / IX-207 Big Horn
USCGC Big Horn (WAO-124)


USS Big Horn (AO-45) also served as USCG Big Horn (WAO-124)
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons


Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - American Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
Bottom Row - World War II Victory Medal - Navy Occupation Service Medal (with Asia clasp) - Philippines Liberation Medal
  • Built in 1936 as Gulf Dawn at Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Chester, PA.
  • Acquired by the Navy and modified as a Q-ship at Boston Navy Yard, Boston, MA.
  • Commissioned USS Big Horn (AO-45), 16 April 1942
  • Decommissioned, 17 January 1944, and transferred to the Coast Guard, recommissioned USCGC Big Horn (WAO-124), a weather ship
  • Decommissioned by the Coast Guard, and returned to the Navy, for recommissioning as Miscellaneous Unclassified Big Horn (IX-207), 1 February 1945
  • Decommissioned, 6 May 1946
  • Struck from the Naval Register (date unknown)
  • Transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal
  • Final Disposition, sold for commercial service in 1948, scrapped in 1960
    Specifications:
    Displacement 4,150 t.(lt) 15,405 t.(fl)
    Length 426' 4"
    Beam 64' 2"
    Draft 27' 9"
    Speed 12.5 kts.
    Complement 239
    Armament two 3"/50 dual purpose gun mounts
    Propulsion 2 x Westinghouse 2-cylinder direct drive turbines; Foster-Wheeler watertube 450-psi main boilers; 3,300 shaft horse power, single propellers
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		Size Image Description Source
    Commercial Service
    Big Horn 23k Gulf Dawn underway shortly before being acquired the US Navy for conversion to a "Q"ship in March 1942
    US Navy photo Courtesy A. D. Baker from the United States Naval Institute Proceedings article "Combat Fleets of the World"    		 Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
    USS Big Horn (AO-45)
    Big Horn 35k Big Horn (AO-45) underway, 22 July 1942 upon completion as a "Q" ship. Armament appears to be a single 4-inch/50-caliber gun aft and two machine guns on her lengthened forecastle
    US Navy photo from the United States Naval Institute Proceedings article "Combat Fleets of the World"    		 Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
    Big Horn 27k Big Horn (AO-45) underway, date and place unknown.
    US Navy photo    		 Hyperwar US Navy in WWII
    Big Horn 21k Big Horn (AO-45) underway, date and place unknown.
    US Navy photo    		 Hyperwar US Navy in WWII
    Big Horn 26k Big Horn (AO-45) underway, date and place unknown.
    US Navy photo    		 Hyperwar US Navy in WWII
    USCGC Big Horn (WAO-124)
    Big Horn 55k Big Horn (WAO-124) underway, circa 1944, place unknown.
    US Navy photo    		 US Coast Guard Historians Office
    Big Horn 22k Big Horn (WAO-124) underway, circa 1944, place unknown.
    US Navy photo    		 .
    USS Big Horn (IX-207)
    Big Horn 36k Big Horn (IX-207) underway, 11 March 1945 just prior to leaving the Southwest Pacific. Her armament now consists of single 3-inch/50-caliber dual purpose guns fore and aft, Two single 40-mm antiaircraft guns on the forecastle, and eight single 20-mm antiaircraft guns
    US Navy photo from the United States Naval Institute Proceedings article "Combat Fleets of the World"    		 Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
    View the Big Horn (AO-45)
    DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway web site.
    Crew Contact And Reunion Information
    U.S.Navy Memorial Foundation
    Fleet Reserve Association
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    The CG History Center
    US Coast Guard Historian's Office - Big Horn, WAO-124 (ex-Gulf Dawn; ex AO-45; later IX-207)
    Back to the Navsource Photo Archives Main Page Back To The Service Force Ship Type Index Back To The Fleet Oiler (AO) Photo Index Back To The Miscellaneous Unclassified (IX) Photo Index
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    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
    © 2005 Gary P. Priolo © 1996 - 2008 NavSource Naval History. All Rights Reserved.