Protector II YAGR-11

Protector II

(YAGR-11: dp. 10,760 (f.); 1. 441'6"; b. 56'11", dr. 24', s. 11
k.; cpl. 144; a. 3 3"; cl. Guardian; T. Z-EC2-S-C5)

The second Protector (YAGR-11) was laid down by J. A Jones Construction Co., Wainwright Yards, Panama City Fla. as liberty ship SS Warren.P. Marks (MCE hull 2346) 31 January 1945; launched 15 March 1945; sponsored by Mrs. E. M. Hinson; and placed in service 29 March 1945.

Operated by the Shepard Steamship Co. from 1945 to 1957 Warren P. Marks was converted at the Charleston Naomi Shipyard, and commissioned Protector (YAGR 11) 20 February 1957, Lt. Comdr. Glen G. Heller in command. After shakedown off Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Protector, homeported at Newport, reported to Commandant, 1st Naval District for administrative control and to Commander YAGR Division 21 for duty and was assigned as an Ocean Station Radar Pieket Ship in the seaword extension of the Eastern Continental Air Defense Command Contiguous Radar Coverage System.

Continuing her duties off the East Coast, Protector was redesignated an AGR on 28 October 1958. She continued her radar picket duty until 1965. During the Cuban invasion in the spring of 1962 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in the fall, Protector operated in the Florida Straits and established a new radar picket station.

On 10 February 1965, Protector terminated picket duty as the last picket ship to man Radar Pieket Station No. 18 of NORAD Contiguous Radar Coverage System. On 28 July 1965 she decommissioned at Bayonne, N.J., and was placed in the Maritime Administration Reserve Fleet, Hudson River, New York, as an Emergeney Relocation Center Ship, where she remains into 1970.