Namesake Edward William Forster Commissioned 25 January 1944 Construction started 31 August 1943 Length 93 m | Laid down 31 August 1943 Decommissioned 25 September 1971 Launched 13 November 1943 | |
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Builder Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Texas Reclassified DER-334, 21 October 1955 | ||
USS Forster (DE-334) was launched 13 November 1943 by Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Texas; sponsored by Mrs. E. W. Forster, widow of Machinist Edward W. Forster, who was killed in action during the Battle of Savo Island, 9 August 1942 with the sinking of USS Vincennes. Forster was commissioned 25 January 1944 and served as an escort in the Atlantic and Mediterranean during World War II. She was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Green Cove Springs, Florida on 15 June 1946.
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Coast Guard service
She was turned over to the United States Coast Guard on 20 June 1951. Forster (given the Coast Guard hull number WDE-434) served on ocean station duty out of Honolulu. This included duty on Ocean Stations VICTOR, QUEEN, and SUGAR and voyages to Japan. She also conducted search and rescue duties, including finding and assisting the following vessels in distress: the M/V Katori Maru on 17 August 1952, assisting the M/V Chuk Maru on 29 August 1953, the M/V Tongshui on 1 – 3 October 1953, and the M/V Steel Fabricator on 26 October 1953. She was returned to the Navy on 25 May 1954.
Return to US Navy service
USS Forster was converted from DE to DER 334 in the late 1950s to early 1960s and served as a part of the DEW (Defense Early Warning) Line in the North Pacific. She was stationed out of Pearl Harbor in the 1960s and served in the Western Pacific on "Operation Market Time" in 1968-69 patrolling the Vietnam coast for contraband shipping and providing sea to shore fire when called upon. She served on patrol In the Formosa Straits in 1969. She was transferred to the Atlantic fleet in late 1969.
Source: LT Harry Powell, USN served as Chief Engineer, Officer of the Deck and Command Duty Officer on Forster from February 1969 to December 1969,
Republic of Vietnam service
She returned to reserve in naval custody until recommissioned at Long Beach, California, 23 October 1956. In February 1966, Forster escorted the nine cutters comprising Division 13 of Coast Guard Squadron One from Naval Base Subic Bay to Vung Tau in South Vietnam. She served in the Navy until she was transferred on 25 September 1971 to South Vietnam. The Vietnamese reclassified her as a frigate and renamed her RVNS Trần Khánh Dư (HQ-04). In 1974, she participated in the Battle of the Paracel Islands.
Socialist Republic of Vietnam service
She was in a shipyard, in overhaul, when Saigon fell on 30 April 1975, and was captured by North Vietnamese forces. The U.S. Navy wrote her off as “Transferred to Vietnam, 30 April 1975.” The communists renamed her VPNS Dai Ky (HQ-03), she apparently was still seaworthy in 1997 and was used as a training ship. By 1999, she was reduced to a training hulk.