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World War II Coast Guard D-Day Veteran
to
be Reunited with His Historic Wartime Cutter
A World War II Coast Guard veteran, Wilfred
“Bud” Eberhart, 84, who participated in the D-Day
Invasion at Normandy, France in 1944 will be
reunited with his 83-foot wooden cutter during
ceremonies at 10 am on June 6 (Tue.) at the Historic
Ships Wharf at South Lake Union Park. Eberhart,
originally from Mitchell, Illinois, will once again
go aboard “his boat,” which as the USCG-11
was one of 60 cutters that were part of Coast Guard
Rescue Flotilla 1 during the historic landing.
The cutter, on which Eberhart served off
Omaha Beach more than 60 years ago, was discovered
recently moored in Lake Union. After
decommissioning in 1962, the historic cutter was
purchased, brought to Seattle, converted to a yacht
and cruised Puget Sound waters for the past 40
years. Owned by Ray Holland of Seattle, it is now
named Tiburon
The D-Day cutter along with another WWII era
83-footer, CG-83527, stationed in
Tacoma from 1945 until the early 1960’s, will be on
public exhibit at the Park on June 3 and 4 (Sat. and
Sun.) and open for tours from 11 am to 5 pm both
days. Both boats are the last of the surviving
wooden Coast Guard cutters in basically original
military condition.
DRAFT/
Not for Release
Special veterans’ commemorations and
memorial services featuring both cutters are planned
for June 5 and 6 at the Park. The D-Day
participation of Coast Guard Rescue Flotilla 1 will
be recognized at 62nd anniversary
ceremonies scheduled for June 6 at 10 am at the
Historic Ships Wharf.
In addition to WWII Coast Guard veteran
Eberhart, other Guardsmen who served on 83-foot
cutters until they were decommissioned in the early
1960’s will be honored. Rear Admiral Richard R.
Houck, commander of Coast Guard District 13, will be
the keynote speaker and Mike Gregorie, First
Gentleman of Washington State and a Vietnam War
veteran, will provide additional comments.
Appropriately the Park site, its moorage and
armory building served as the Naval Reserve Center
in Seattle from 1941 to 1998, and was used for
training hundreds of Navy, Marine and Coast Guard
reservists. The formerly federal government-owned
property was turned over to the City of Seattle in
2002 for development as a maritime heritage-themed
waterfront park.
In his early 20’s during the war, Eberhart
was a Signalman Third Class signalman on the crew of
his cutter off Omaha Beach on D-Day and afterward.
His and other RESFLO 1 crews in rescued a total of
1438 soldiers, sailors and others on D-Day and the
days that followed during the historic invasion
period. Eberhart is believed to be the sole
surviving crewman of his cutter who participated in
the D-Day landing.
“I can’t believe that my old boat has
survived for more than 60 years,” said Eberhart.
“It’s going to be a dream come true to stand
at the helm [steering wheel station] again on the 62nd
anniversary of the D-Day landing and when I was
aboard.”
Following its D-Day service, the cutter was
re-designated CG-83366 and redeployed
first from Europe to the Atlantic Coast and then
through the Panama Canal to its permanent duty
station at Santa Barbara, California. After almost
20 years of active patrol, search and rescue, and
marine safety and enforcement service, the cutter
was decommissioned
DRAFT/
Not for Release
in 1961 and sold into the civilian market as
surplus in 1963. It was subsequently
purchased by Holland and sailed up the West
Coast to Seattle. Converted to a yacht, the former
Coast Guard cutter has been used for recreational
cruising in the Pacific Northwest for more than 40
years.
The CG-83366 now Tiburon
was built in 1942 by Wheeler Shipbuilding Company of
Brooklyn, New York, the 67th under the
company’s WWII total contract for 230 cutters.
Its sister cutter, CG-83527,
was built in 1944 and is the third from the last in
the total production run. It is owned by Combatant
Craft of America (CCA), a Port Ludlow-based
nonprofit military maritime heritage and education
organization.
Following its service in Florida, the CG-83527
was transferred through the Panama Canal to the
Pacific Coast, ending up in Puget Sound and its
permanent duty station at
Tacoma. On active duty from 1945 until 1962, it
provided Coast Guard patrol, search and rescue, and
marine safety and enforcement services in the south
Puget Sound area.
Sold as surplus in 1964, the cutter was
purchased by a private owner and taken down the
coast to Alameda, California in the east San
Francisco Bay area where it became a live-
aboard for the next 30 years. Upon the
death of its owner, it was donated to a patrol boats
museum in Rio Vista in the Sacramento River delta
area. The former CG-83527
was rediscovered in 2003 by Dan Withers,
CCoA president, and purchased by the nonprofit
group. During 2004 is was prepared for its 1200
mile return voyage to its former Puget Sound home
waters, a voyage completed late that summer.
“Once we discovered this cutter had long
Coast Guard active duty history in Tacoma,” said
Withers, “we just had to bring it back to Puget
Sound and its old homeport.”
Undergoing continued restoration to its
early 1960’s military configuration, last summer the
CG-83527 helped lead 26 sailing and
other heritage vessels into Tacoma during the city’s
five-day-long Tall Ships Tacoma festival on the Thea
Foss Waterway. This summer in addition to
appearing at the D-Day Commemoration in Seattle it
will be visiting and on exhibit at several north
Puget Sound ports where 83-foot cutters were
assigned from the late 1940’s to early 1960’s.
These wartime and peacetime Coast Guard station
ports were at Bellingham, Friday Harbor, Port
Angeles and Port Townsend.
The four day World War II exhibit of the two
83-foot cutters at South Lake Union
Park, and the reunion with their Coast Guard
veteran crewmen, is being sponsored by Combatant
Craft of America in cooperation with Coast Guard
83-Foot Sailors Association and Coast Guard District
13 in Seattle. Other co-sponsoring organizations
are the Center for Wooden Boats, Puget Sound
Maritime Historical Society, Seattle Department of
Parks and Recreation, and Coast Guard Combat
Veterans Association [Association
arrangements pending].
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