BIG HORN IX 207

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

USS BIG HORN AO-45
Commissioned as Fleet Oiler (AO) 16 April 1942
Decommissioned 17 January 1944
Transferred to US Coast Guard
USCGC BIGHORN WAO-124
Commissioned as Weather Ship 17 January 1944
Decommissioned 1 February 1945
Returned to US Navy
USS BIG HORN IX-207
Commissioned Miscellaneous Unclassified (IX) 1 February 1945
Decommissioned 6 May 1946

Struck from Naval Register 5 July 1946
Sold for merchant service 3 July 1947
Fate unknown

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

USS Big Horn AO-45 Covers Page 1 (1943)
USCGC Big Horn WAO-124 Covers Page 1 (1944)

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.

>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

1st Commissioning 16 April 1942 to 17 January 1944

Locy Type
9uz*

1943-06-14

Mark from back of cover

U.S. Coast Guard Commissioning 17 January 1944 to 1 February 1945

Locy Type
3z (BBT)

1944-08-04

Censored crew member mail. From the Rich Hoffner collection.

Locy Type 3az

1944-03-08

Postmark not reported in the USCS Postmark Catalog. Registered Official Business. From the Rich Hoffner collection.

Locy Type 7z

1944-08-11

N/A

Postmark did not originate from the ship. Tobacco acknowledgement card to General Motors.

Other Information

USS BIG HORN earned the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Navy Occupation Service Medal w/ Asia clasp and the Philippines Liberation Medal during her Naval/Coast Guard career.

NAMESAKE - A river in Montana and Wyoming.

If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.