After her U.S. Navy career ended, the ship served in the United States Coast Guard as the cutter USCGC Bering Strait (WAVP-382), later WHEC-382, from 1948 to 1971, seeing service in the Vietnam War.

Arriving there on 14 October, she established a seaplane base at Kuhio Bay and, until 5 November, carried out training with successive detachments of Glenn L. Martin Company PBM Mariner flying boats.

Returning to Pearl Harbor on 23 November 1944, Bering Strait underwent a shipyard availability and then loaded the equipment of Rescue Squadron 3 (VH-3), which had been substituted for VH-2.

That day, she reported to Commander, Marianas Patrol and Escort Force, for temporary operational control for radar picket and air-sea rescue duty.

From 6 to 15 January 1945, Bering Strait operated 10 nautical miles (19 km) west of Sarigan and Guguan Islands, on radar picket station to warn Saipan of approaching Japanese planes.

Returning to Saipan on 28 January 1945 for logistics and to disembark the U.S. Marine Corps fighter-direction officer, Bering Strait commenced a six days of voyage repairs.

The B-29, named Deacon's Delight, accomplished "an almost perfect ditching,"[4] and Bering Strait's motor whaleboat took the entire 12-man crew on board and brought them to the ship.

Then, after collecting floating debris and gear, and riddling the Superfortress with gunfire in a vain effort to sink it, Bering Strait rammed and sank the hardy bomber.

Guided to the scene by a "Dumbo" air-sea rescue aircraft the ship arrived there by 16:05 hours on 11 February 1945 and picked up the entire 11-man crew immediately.

On the night of Bering Strait's return to her station, on 19 February 1945, a B-29 had ditched at 21:00, 12 nautical miles (22 km) north of Pagan Island, but broke up and sank upon landing; five men, trapped in the wreckage, had drowned.

"[4] Bering Strait disembarked those survivors at Saipan on 21 February 1945, and got underway later the same day to relieve the destroyer USS Cummings on lifeguard station.

On 10 March, Bering Strait established contact with a B-29, nicknamed Hopeful Devil, that radioed a distress call during its return from a bombing mission over the Japanese home islands.

[5] Bering Strait remained at sea, 28 nautical miles (52 km) from Pagan Island, from 11 to 14 March 1945, at which time she relieved her sister ship, the seaplane tender USS Cook Inlet at another air-sea rescue station.

Bering Strait's performance of her rescue function earned her accolades from the Commanding General of the United States Army Air Forces 313th Bombardment Wing who, upon the ship's detachment from lifeguard duties, sent her a message: "Since you have been our guardian angel of the seas you have returned safely to us 50 combat crewmen.

This work accomplished, she sailed for Kerama Retto on 23 March 1945 in company with three large seaplane tenders and three of her sister ships, as Task Group (TG) 51.20.

Reaching her destination on 28 March 1945, Bering Strait anchored in the Kerama Retto passage, and TG 51.20 established a seaplane base that day.

Antiaircraft fire had brought the plane down in a rice paddy, and the three crewmen deemed it prudent to take to their rubber boat and head out to sea where Lieutenant Commander Bonvillian's Mariner picked them up.

For the next three months, Bering Strait served as the coordinating control tender at Kerama Retto, not only tending seaplanes but also conducting sonar searches to guard against midget submarine incursions.

Later that month, on 14 June 1945, Bering Strait-based Mariners rescued pilots under fire from Japanese guns at Kikai Shima in the northern Ryukyu Islands.

One Bering Strait-based PBM rescued ten men from the ship while a second stood by in case the need arose to fly critically hurt sailors to medical treatment.

On 21 June, Bering Strait's guns shot down a Nakajima E4N Type 00 (Allied reporting name "Jake") reconnaissance floatplane.

Hostilities with Japan ended on 15 August 1945, bringing World War II to a close, while Bering Strait was operating at Chimu Bay.

Reaching Sasebo, Japan, soon thereafter, she remained at that port until her sister ship Cook Inlet relieved her on 30 December 1945, then departed for the United States.

During her Coast Guard career she also visited places as diverse as Adak, Alaska; Yokosuka, Japan; the French Frigate Shoals, and Laysan Island.

In 1954 she was transferred to Honolulu, Hawaii, which remained her home port for the rest of her Coast Guard career, and continued her ocean station duties in the Pacific from there.

On 13 February 1960, she used one ton of concrete patch material that had been air-dropped to her to assist the Japanese training ship Toyama Maru in making emergency repairs off Palmyra Island.

On 13 January 1965, she relieved the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Matagorda, which had been damaged while standing by the disabled Liberian merchant ship Saint Helena 1,000 nautical miles (1,900 km) northwest of Midway Atoll.

While Matagorda steamed to Midway and then on to Honolulu in heavy seas, Bering Strait stood by Saint Helena, which was in danger of breaking in two, until a commercial tug arrived to assist the merchant ship.

The squadron was activated at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 24 April 1967 when its commander, Captain John E. Day, hoisted his pennant aboard his flagship, the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Gresham.

The squadron's other Vietnam War duties included fire support for ground forces, resupplying Coast Guard and Navy patrol boats, and search-and-rescue operations.