Interceptor YAGR-8

Interceptor

(YAGR - : dp. 10,700 11., 1. 441'0"; b. 56'11"; dr. 24'; s.
11 k.; cpl. 151; cl. Guardian; T. ~EC2-S-C5)

Intercepter (YAGR-8) was launched as Liberty Ship 13du~ard W. Burton by J. A. Jones Construction Co., Inc., Panama City, Fla., 12 September 1945; sponsored rby Miss Juanita M. Kaylor, and delivered to T..J. Stevenson & Co. 8 November 1945. She served several lines as a cargo ship until being placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Wilmington 20 June 1948. Acquired by the Navy 28 June 1935, the ship was converted to Navy use at Charleston Naval Shipyard and commissioned Interceptor 16 February 1956, Lt. Comar. B L. Hall in command.

Interceptor was designed to carry the latest in longrange radar and communications equipment and to act as an ocean radar station ship. Following shakedown training she sailed from Charleston 17 March en route to her new home port, San Francisco. Arriving via the Panama Canal 11 April, the ship began a regular cycle of 3- to 4-week at-sea periods as a picket ship under the Continental Air Defense Command. Operating with search aircraft, Interceptor could detect, track, and report aircraft at great distances as weU as control interceptor aircraft in the event of an air attack on the United States. Patrolling off the coast of Canada she formed an integral part of North America's air early warning system. Reclassified AGR~8, radar picket ship, 28 September 1958, Interceptor for the next 7 years operated with NORAD in forming an important link in the nation's defenses. Interceptor was struck from the Navy List 1 September 1965 and placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, Calif., where she remains.