USS Brambling (AMS-42)

After completing her outfitting period, YMS-109 reported for duty with the 5th Naval District. She conducted minesweeping operations out of Little Creek, Virginia, and performed experimental work in the York River. In addition, the motor minesweeper escorted coastal shipping and made antisubmarine patrols in the Chesapeake Bay area.

In April 1946, YMS-109 departed Pearl Harbor to return to the United States. She arrived in San Francisco, California, on 2 May and unloaded her minesweeping gear. On 28 May, she got underway for the U.S. East Coast. The minesweeper transited the Panama Canal on 13 June and continued her voyage to Tompkinsville, New York, where she arrived on 1 July.

On 12 July, she returned to sea, bound ultimately for Detroit, Michigan. En route, the warship visited Quebec, Canada, before heading up the St. Lawrence River and into Lake Ontario. She arrived at Detroit on 24 July. On 7 August 1946, YMS-109 was decommissioned at the Detroit Naval Armory where she began duty as a naval reserve training ship. She was named Brambling and was redesignated AMS-42 on 19 August 1947. Her naval reserve training assignment in the 9th Naval District lasted until the beginning of 1950. In February of that year, she was placed in reserve at Orange, Texas.

Her retirement, however, proved to be only a year in duration since the outbreak of the war in Korea in June 1950 prompted an increase in the Navy's demand for active warships. Accordingly, Brambling was recommissioned on 12 February 1951. Her role, though, was not of an active combat nature. Instead, she helped free ships of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet—ships in a higher state of combat readiness than she—for service in the combat zone.

Throughout the Korean War, Brambling made her contribution as a training ship at the Mine Warfare School, Yorktown, Virginia, helping to train minesweeper sailors for service in Korean waters. Later, after the Korean War subsided, she occupied her time with the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and independent ships exercises punctuated by assignments with the Naval Mine Defense Laboratory at Panama City, Florida. On 7 February 1955, Brambling was redesignated MSCO-42.

Not long thereafter, however, she received orders to prepare for inactivation at Green Cove Springs, Florida. The warship arrived there on 19 April and was immediately placed in commission, in reserve, for the inactivation process. On 17 July 1955, Brambling was decommissioned and berthed with the Green Cove Springs Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet. Her name was struck from the Navy list sometime in November 1959, and she was sold on 31 August 1961 to Mr. H. G. Mann, of Jacksonville, Florida.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

• Photo gallery of Brambling at NavSource Naval History