On September 1, 1983, while alternating with the Nantucket II the WLV-612 served as a radar and security-communications platform off of the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, US Vice President George H. W. Bush was on board when he learned the Soviet Union had shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 while passing through Soviet Airspace near the Soviet-Alaskan border.

[2] The incident propelled the Reagan Administration to allow worldwide civilian access to DNSS/Navstar, the military satellite navigation system that became GPS.

After decommissioning, Nantucket Lightship was purchased by the Boston Educational Marine Exchange but returned within the year to the General Services Administration due to lack of funds.

Instead, due to lack of public funding, it was moved to Marina Bay (Quincy, Massachusetts) where it was maintained by the volunteers at the Friends of Lightship Nantucket.

From 2000 to 2003 a team of 11 craftsmen in New Bedford, Massachusetts restored and outfitted the WLV-612 with a "master suite and four guest suites with hand carved mahogany and oak beds, six bathrooms, a kitchen with double ovens, two trash compactors, granite countertops, and a six-burner cooktop, a dining room with a tiger maple table able to seat 12, a library/den, an office, and an entertainment room with a flat-screen television, foosball table, and the captain’s original poker table.