USS Wachapreague (AGP-8) was a motor torpedo boat tender in commission in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946, seeing service in the latter part of World War II.

[4] Following her shakedown training out of San Diego, California, Wachapreague got underway on 18 July 1944 for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, en route to the Southwest Pacific.

A brief two-day respite at Kossol Roads, Palau, for repairs and a further refueling of the PT boats, preceded the final leg of the voyage.

Soon after her arrival at Liloan Bay, Wachapreague contacted the Philippine guerrilla radio network for a mutual exchange of information as to Japanese forces in the area.

[4] On the afternoon of 24 October 1944, upon receipt of word that three powerful Japanese task forces were approaching from three directions, PT boats tended by Wachapreague sped to action stations.

This second echelon of Japanese ships, correctly surmising that the first had fallen upon some hard times, then fled, hotly pursued by American planes which administered the coup de grace to sink the already crippled Abukuma and the destroyer Shiranuhi on 26 October 1944.

While the crew of Wachapreague labored to repair the badly damaged torpedo boat PT-194 on 25 October 1944, a Japanese plane attacked the ship, only to be driven off by a heavy anti-aircraft barrage.

As PT-134 pulled away from Wachapreague's side, a Japanese bomb landed some 18 feet (5.5 meters) from the PT boat's stern, killing one man and wounding four on board PT-134.

Moving out under cover of a smoke screen, Wachapreague vacated her anchorage just before 14 Japanese planes struck and, while clearing the bay, fired on three twin-engined Mitsubishi G4M (Allied reporting name "Betty") bombers, claiming two kills as one "Betty" crashed into the sea and a second, trailing smoke, crashed behind a nearby island.

[4] Wachapreague arrived at San Pedro Bay late on 26 October 1944 and conducted tending operations at that site until 13 November 1944.

During this time, her PT boats operated with devastating effect against Japanese shipping in the Ormoc Bay and Mindanao Sea areas.

[citation needed] Later that evening, PT-382 came alongside Wachapreague and transferred two men she had rescued from the water who had been blown overboard from Kyle V. Johnson during the earlier heavy air action.

While the guns still pounded the shore and the invasion itself was underway, Wachapreague entered the Tarakan Bay on 1 May 1945 to establish an advance base for her PT boats.

For the next four months, until the surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945 that ended World War II, Wachapreague operated from this bay, tending MTBRon 36 PT boats while they in turn conducted daily offensive runs up the coast of Borneo.

[4] In the course of these operations, the PT boats sought out and destroyed Japanese shipping at Tawao, Cowie Harbor, and Noneokan, Dutch North Borneo, shelling and rocketing shore installations.

[4] Wachapreague tended PT boats after the end of the war, based at Tarakan, until she headed back to the United States and arrived at San Francisco, California, on 5 December 1945.

After upkeep at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, California, Wachapreague got underway for the United States East Coast on 20 March 1946 and reported at Boston, Massachusetts, on 6 April 1946 for inactivation.

[4] Barnegat-class ships were very reliable and seaworthy and had good habitability, and the United States Coast Guard viewed them as ideal for ocean-station duty, in which they would perform weather reporting and search and rescue tasks, once they were modified by having a balloon shelter added aft and having oceanographic equipment, an oceanographic winch, and a hydrographic winch installed.

While McCulloch was patrolling Ocean Station Bravo off the coast of Labrador, Canada, in January 1959, raging winter seas cracked her main decks and swept one crewman overboard.

In early November 1965, McCulloch rescued 280 Cuban refugees from small craft in the Florida Strait and carried them to Key West.

After she was cleaned up and repaired, the former Ngô Quyền was commissioned in the Philippine Navy on 7 February 1977 as the frigate RPS Gregorio del Pilar (PF-8).