USS Woodpecker

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USS Woodpecker (AMS-209/MSC-209) was a Bluebird-class coastal minesweeper in the United States Navy. Built at Bellingham Shipyards in Washington, she was laid down on June 23, 1954, launched on January 7, 1955, reclassified MSC-209 on February 7, 1955, and commissioned on February 3, 1956. She served with the Mine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, operating mainly in the Western Pacific from bases like Sasebo, Japan, and taking part in exercises and mine countermeasures around Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong.

Starting in the mid-1960s, Woodpecker supported Southeast Asia operations during the Vietnam War, including coastal surveillance under Operation Market Time, boarding suspicious junks, and providing naval gunfire support. In 1966 she became the first coastal minesweeper in WestPac to operate an on-line cryptographic facility after several communications upgrades.

Woodpecker was decommissioned on December 15, 1970, and was stricken from the Navy list in 1976. She was sold to the Republic of Fiji and renamed Kikau (MSC-204), serving as HMFS Kikau until she was sunk as an artificial reef in 1990.