USCGC Red Beech (WLM-686) was a Red-class coastal buoy tender designed, built, owned, and operated by the United States Coast Guard.

Her secondary missions included search and rescue, light icebreaking, law enforcement, and marine environmental protection.

Her machinery was so antiquated that when the ship was decommissioned in 1964 she was transferred to The Smithsonian Institution, which put her boilers and steam engine on display.

[6] Maintaining steam-powered buoy tenders like Oak had become costly and problematic, as spare parts for their engines were no longer available and had to be fabricated.

Her shallow draft and flat bottom was required for her work along the edges of dredged channels, but this hull form made her harder to maneuver and more prone to rolling.

The bulk of her time was spent at sea tending her buoy fleet or moored, maintaining the ship and training the crew.

In June 1970, Red Beech recovered a Cessna 150 aircraft which crashed into Long Island Sound and sank off New Rochelle.

Recovery of loose bales of hashish in the area led to the dispatch of Red Beech to the site of the wreck with divers from the Coast Guard's Atlantic Strike Team.

[2][17] On 25 October 1972, a barge owned by Atlantic Richfield was loading gasoline and light fuel oil in Arthur Kill when it exploded and began burning.

Red Beech was dispatched among other assets to assess damage to buoys caused by the explosion and to monitor the spill.

[1] Large buoys placed in freshwater rivers where ice conditions are difficult can be damaged, sunk, or dragged off-station.

The Special Operations Service Ribbon was awarded for her response to the 1993 Storm of the Century and again in 1996 for her security role during the 50th anniversary celebration for the United Nations.

[32] Red Beech was returned to the Coast Guard Yard where she was cleaned of potentially toxic materials in preparation to be sunk as part of an artificial reef.

[1] She was sunk on 10 June 2000 and became part of the Great Eastern Reef, about 20 miles (32 km) off Ocean City, Maryland.