From: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. IV, pp. 125.

Littlehales

(YF-854: t. 300 (lt.); 132' 6"; b. 31'; dr. 9'; s. 10 k.; cpl. 19; a. none; cl. YF - 52)

The second Littlehales (AGSC-15) was laid down as YF-854 31 May 1945 by Erie Concrete & Steel Co., Erie, Pa.; launched 28 August 1945; and commissioned 17 December 1952.

Launched at the end of World War II, YF-854 remained inactive until commissioning in 1962. From 1953 to 1958 the ship conducted surveys and collected data along the west coast from Alaska to Panama.

On 14 February 1959, YF-854 was named Littlehales and redesignated AGSC-16. For the next 3 years, she surveyed along the east coast, making oceanic soundings and charting harbors from Mayport, Fla., to Argentia, Newfoundland.

The ship Joined Project AUTEC (Atlantic Underwater Test and Evaluation Center) in February 1962, for open ocean research in TOTO (Tongue of the Ocean) off the Bahamas. From 1962 to 1968 Littlehales operated in the TOTO area, with only occasional vi sits to her home port at Little Creek, Va. The data gathered by Littlehales is helping science unravel the ocean's age-old secrets and widening man's horizons. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 20 February 1968 and in an event rare i n Naval History, was decommissioned 1 April 1968, over a month after she had been struck.