History
USS Antelope (PG-86) was the third Asheville-class gunboat, laid down on 1 June 1965 for the US Navy. She was completed and launched by Tacoma Boatbuilding Co. of Tacoma, Washington, on 18 June 1966 and was initially designated PGM-86. The patrol boat was named not after the animal, but after the small town of Antelope, Montana. The vessel was reclassified as a patrol gunboat and redesignated PG-86 on 28 March 1967 before being commissioned on 4 November 1967.
She spent her first year conducting shakedown training and operational testing between November 1967 and most of 1968 before being assigned to her homeport at Long Beach, California, for operational duty along the US West Coast. Later that year, she participated in CNO Project CS-48 to evaluate her new gunfire control equipment, the Mk 87 FCS. Antelope (PG-86) and Ready (PG-87) were unique members of the Asheville class, receiving the Mk 87 track-while-scan radar fire control system, which was developed from the Dutch M22 FCS and manufactured to US standards by Ford Instruments. The Mk 87 system compensated for ship motion far better than the World War II-era Mk 63 director fitted to other Asheville-class boats and eliminated the need for the radar antenna mounted on the 76 mm turret. As a result, both Antelope and Ready lacked the characteristic radar antenna seen on their sister ships.
She completed her evaluation assignment with the new FCS in April 1969 before entering the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for overhaul. She departed San Diego on 2 November 1969 to begin a nearly two-year deployment to the western Pacific, arriving first in Guam before sailing for South Vietnam on 19 January 1970. There, she conducted mobile naval gunfire support missions along the Cua Lon River, Rach Bien Nhan Canal, and Cam Ranh Bay, where she encountered hostile forces, including patrol boats and personnel armed with shoulder-fired RPG-2 launchers. She sustained significant damage during riverine operations but underwent extensive repairs before returning to duty. Her combat service in Vietnam concluded in January 1971, after which she departed the western Pacific.
She returned to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard on the last day of June 1971 for a seven-month overhaul and refit, during which she received an interim surface-to-surface missile capability. This involved replacing the 40 mm gun with two box launchers, each containing two RIM-66 Standard MR missiles, most likely the RIM-66D SSM-ARM (Surface-to-Surface Missile/Anti-Radiation Missile), integrated with the boat’s Mk 87 FCS. She also received new main diesel engines.
On 10 July 1972, Antelope began preparations for transfer to the Atlantic Fleet alongside USS Ready (PG-87), transiting the Panama Canal before sailing to the Mediterranean. Her new homeport became Naples, Italy, where she arrived on 17 September 1972. From then onward, Antelope served with the US Sixth Fleet in a variety of roles, including simulating Soviet missile boats, firing missiles at target craft, participating in amphibious assault exercises, and conducting surveillance operations and equipment testing throughout the Mediterranean, from southern Europe to the North African coast.
One of her most notable achievements occurred in September 1973, when she successfully launched a telemetered Standard missile and scored a direct hit on a Mk 35 SEPTAR target boat during testing in the Mediterranean. Unlike Antelope and Ready, their sister ships Grand Rapids and Douglas lacked the Mk 87 FCS and could only employ the Standard ARM missile, which homed on enemy ship radar emissions.
On 31 July 1977, Antelope departed Rota, Spain, for the United States and arrived at Little Creek, Virginia, on 21 August. A month later, she was decommissioned, and her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 October 1977. She was transferred to the Environmental Protection Agency on 17 January 1978 and entered service on Lake Michigan as a survey vessel gathering environmental data on the effects of waste disposal in the Great Lakes. Renamed the Oceanographic Survey Vessel (OSV) Peter W. Anderson in June 1985, she remained in service until 2009, when she was replaced by OSV Bold.
USS Antelope received one battle star for her service during the Vietnam War.
