as well as patrol and escort duties. On 31 July 1945, the ship was designated as a senior escort vessel and commander of the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) screen in the transport anchorage area. Japan Surrender The crew of the PCE-877 was participating in amphibious training practice with Army troops in and around Luzon and Subic Bay when the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place on 6 August and 9 August 1945. Japan then surrendered to the Allies on 15 August 1945. It is uncertain when news of the surrender and the end of hostilities reached the PCE-877 crew (Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz sent out a telegram to the entire Pacific Fleet on 15 August 1945. The ship continued to patrol and provide escort in the Philippines following completion of the amphibious training on 17 August 1945. Administratively, the PCE-877 was formally reclassified PCE(C)-877 on 20 August 1945 (even though the conversion to Escort-Control took place 10 months prior at Pearl Harbor). And in late August 1945, Commanding Officer Lieutenant John R. Shea, Jr., USNR, was relieved by Lieutenant Christian G. ("Dutch") Schmidt, USNR. Lieutenant Wirt P. Hoxie, USNR, replaced Lt. James B. Brady as Executive Officer. Lt. Shea would later be promoted to Lieutenant Commander and receive the Bronze Star for the Iwo Jima engagements. On 25 August 1945 the PCE-877 received orders to escort Transport Group Able en-route to Tokyo Area. The ship had to return to Subic Bay due to weather conditions that day, but then set out at 1738 on 27 August 1945 for Tokyo. The group arrived in the afternoon of 1 September 1945, and the surrender was recorded as 0904 local time 2 September 1945 on the USS Missouri (BB-63) in Tokyo Bay. The PCE(C)-877 is listed as one of five allied Submarine Chasers present for the formal surrender. Of the 77 listed crew members in September 1945, 56 had served on the PCE-877 since commission on 14 February 1944 (72%). After the surrender, the ship was stationed in Yokohama Bay off of Tokyo Bay through early October 1945. The ship had a large amounts of "Speed Letters" indicating discharges and a imminent return stateside in late September and early October 1945. Post-War Atlantic operations Following the end of World War II, the PCE(C)-877 returned to the United States by way of Pearl Harbor (December 1945-January 1946), where Commanding Officer Lieutenant Christian G.