FIREDRAKE AE 14

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Mount Hood Class Ammunition Ship Keel Laid as Maritime Commission type (C2-S-AJ1) hull Launched May 12 1944 as WINGED RACER Acquired by U.S. Navy June 29 1944 USS FIREDRAKE AE-14 Commissioned December 27 1944 - Decommissioned February 21 1946 Recommissioned October 11 1951 - Decommissioned March 19 1971 Struck from Naval Register July 15 1976 Sold December 1 1977 to General Metals of Tacoma, Inc. for scrap

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. Covers Page 1    (1952-70)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Date From to Date To	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

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Post office reestablished January 1 1952 - Disestablished November 16 1970

 

Locy Type FDPS 2 Jan 1, 1952

1952-01-01

First Day Postal Service

 

Locy Type 2

1952-04-15

At this timeframe, she was on her first Western Pacific (WestPac) tour to Korea to support the war efforts.

 

Locy Type 2t(n+u) (USS)

1970-02-26

Note:

 

Locy Type 9efu

1954-06-08

Favor strike on stamp block applied to cover

 

Locy Type LDPS 2t(n+u) Nov 16, 1970

1970-11-16

Last Day Postal Service

 

Locy Type LDPS 9ef(nu)

1970-11-16

Last Day Postal Service

 

Other Information

FIREDRAKE earned two battle stars for World War II service
* Okinawa Gunto operation
Assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto, March 24 to June 30 1945
5th and 3rd Fleet raids in support of the Okinawa Gunto operation, April 11 to June 11 1945
* 3d Fleet operations against Japan
August 15 1945

Earned four battle stars for Korean War service
* Second Korean Winter
April 15-18 1952
* Korean Defense Summer-Fall 1952
May 3-12 1952
May 29 to June 8 1952
June 24-26 1952
July 3-15 1952
* Third Korean Winter
March 6-14 1953
March 28 to April 4 1953
April 21-27 1953
* Korean Summer-Fall 1953
May 7-12 1953
June 1-13 and 18-27 1953
July 7-20 and 27 1953

Earned six campaign stars for Vietnam War service
* Vietnam Defense
November 24 to December 5 1965
December 14-21 1965
* Vietnamese Counteroffensive
January 6-15 1966
January 28 to February 7 1966
February 27 to March 8 1966
March 25 to April 7 1966
April 27 to May 11 1966
May 14-18 1966
* Vietnamese Counteroffensive - Phase III
December 5-24 1967
* Tet 69/Counteroffensive
February 27 to March 11 1969
March 19-25 1969
April 8-22 1969
June 4-8 1969
* Vietnam Summer-Fall 1969
June 9-21 1969
June 29 to July 25 1969
August 16-25 1969
* Vietnamese Counteroffensive - Phase VII
July 1-6 and 13-26 1970
August 1-3 1970
August 25 to September 6 1970

FIREDRAKE received the following awards during her Naval career - American Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (1) - World War II Victory Medal - National Defense Service Medal (2) - Korea Service Medal (4) - Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (4) - Vietnam Service Medal (6) - Korean Presidential Unit Citation - Philippine Liberation Medal (1) - United Nations Service Medal - Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal - Republic of Korea War Service Medal.

NAMESAKE - A fire-breathing dragon of Germanic mythology.

 

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