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Ojibwa

Unit of the month supplied by Skip Tyler

USCGC OJIBWA
UNIT OF THE MONTH...

SHIPMATES Unit of the Month for July is USCGC OJIBWA, 110-foot harbor tug stationed at Buffalo--the first named Coast Guard cutter to receive an outstanding evaluation in operational readiness by any area inspectors - She earned this distinction on 16 May, when she was given the outstanding rating during her annual inspection by the Northern Inspectors. During 1961 and 1962 she bad received excellent evaluations in her annual inspections.

Since July 1959, when the present inspection standards were established, only five other floating units in the entire service have received the outstanding evaluation, and they were all patrol boat types. There are a total of 235 named cutters in the Coast Guard, with the majority of them inspected annually. According to CHBOSN Kenneth N. Black, commanding officer of the OJIBWA, this indicates that the outstanding rating earned by the vessel was one out of a potential 940 inspections.

OJIBWA is one of 17 110-foot harbor tugs in service in the Coast Guard, and one of five stationed in the Ninth District. The other tour are the ARUNDEL, in Chicago; KAW in Cleveland; NAUGATUCK in Sault Ste. Marie; and the RARITAN, based in Milwaukee.

Like the other 110-footers in the Ninth, OJIBWA has an icebreaking bow, and although her primary duties are listed as search and rescue, she is probably best known for her work each spring breaking out an ice-bound Buffalo Harbor.

Built in Brooklyn in 1943, the OJIBWA served the remainder of World war II on escort and search and rescue duty in the North Atlantic Area. From the end of the war until her transfer to Buftalo₁in 1954, her home port was Boston.

OJIBWA takes her name from a fierce tribe of the Al-gonquin Indian family which originated in the Lake Superior region of the United States and Canada. Her crew consists of one officer, CHBOSN Black, who assumed command in April 1961--and 19 enlisted men.

Icebreaker, tug, search and rescue vessel; the OJIBWA, like the other cutters of the Ninth District, is a "Jack of all Trades". The most descriptive word for the sturdy little workhorse is that given it by the Northern inspectors--OUTSTANDING:!