Although officially classified as environmental research ships, they were actually used for signals intelligence gathering, as part of the AGER program.

She was converted to an environmental research ship from August to October 1965, after which she collected intelligence out of Yokosuka until decommissioning on 14 November 1969.

On 23 January 1968, Pueblo was attacked, boarded, and seized by North Korean forces while in, according to U.S. officials, international waters.

The ship was renovated and made open to tourists with an accompanying video of the North Korean perspective in late July 2013.

First based in San Francisco, Colonel Armond Peterson later surveyed the coasts of Central America after being moved to Balboa, in the Panama Canal Zone.

Placed in reserve on 17 February 1956, Colonel Armond Peterson was acquired by the United States Navy and converted to an environmental research ship, also being redesignated Palm Beach (AGER-3).

The vessel was decommissioned in 1969, and later sold to a private owner, involved in drug smuggling and later sunk and used as a scuba diving reef.