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NavSource Online:
Motor Gunboat/Patrol Gunboat Photo Archive
Left patch courtesy of the Patrol Gunboat Association, right patch courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Benicia (PG 96)
ex-PGM-96


Benicia served the Navies of the United States and South Korea.
Asheville Class Motor Gunboat:

  • Laid down 14 April 1969 as PGM-96 at Tacoma Boatbuilding Co., Tacoma, WA
  • Launched 20 December 1969
  • Ships sponsor was Mrs. W. F. Petrovic, wife of the Commander, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard
  • Commissioned USS Benicia (PG-96), 20 April 1970
  • Decommissioned 2 October 1971 at San Diego, CA, transferred to South Korea and renamed Paek Ku (Translation Seagull) 51 (PGM 351)
  • Decommissioned and returned to U.S. Navy custody in 1991
  • Struck from the Navy Register 30 August 1996
  • Scrapped in Korea in 1998.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 237 t.
  • Length 164' 5"
  • Beam 23' 8"
  • Draft 9' 5"
  • Speed 40 kts.
  • Armament: One 3"/50 gun mount, one 40mm gun mount and two twin .50 cal. machine guns
  • Propulsion: Two 725hp VT-12 875M Cummins diesels engines, one 1,500nhp General Electric model LM 1500 gas turbine engine, two controllable pitch propellers, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Benicia (PG 96)
    Benicia 38k 20 December 1969
    Prior to launching    		 Tacoma Boatbuilding
    Benicia 26k 20 December 1969
    After launching
    USS Benicia (PG 96)
    Benicia 58k - Robert W. Robb
    via Patrol Gunboat Association
    Terry W. McManuels, ETCM(SW), Ret.
    Benicia 98k U.S. Navy photo Joe Radigan
    Benicia 184k U.S. Navy photo from the April 1987 edition of All Hands magazine
    Paek Ku 51 (PGM 351)
    Benicia 82k . Joe Radigan
    Commanding Officers
    01LT James Laverne Turnbull, USN25 April 1970 - 2 October 1971
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Benicia (PG 96)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval Historical Center website
    USS Benicia (PG 96)
    "Commissioning Program"
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Patrol Gunboat Association
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