others. Damage to the vessel Back home at Little Creek, Virginia, Tucumcari continued her mission of demonstrating hydrofoil technology. Deployments included coastal surveillance with the U.S. Coast Guard out of Woods Hole, Massachusetts and further V.I.P. demonstrations at Annapolis, Maryland and Washington, D.C. On 16 November 1972, Tucumcari suffered a serious accident. While participating in simulated combat operations with other amphibious forces off Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, she ran aground. Hitting a coral reef at 40+ knots, Tucumcari was stopped dead within the length of her hull, forcing the front strut aft and shearing off the port and starboard foils. Several crewmen were injured and two crewmen had to be air lifted by helicopter from the grounded vessel. Fortunately, all the crewmen recovered from their injuries. The fate of Tucumcari was sealed during salvage operations. Damage to ship was a result of the ship going hard aground due the poor seamanship of the new captain and further damage when a salvage crew pulled the ship off the reef. No damage to the ship took place when the coral behind the ship was partitaly blasted away by members of UDT-21. The damage was so severe that it was deemed uneconomical to repair, and Tucumcari was, accordingly, struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 7 November 1973. Subsequently transferred to the Naval Ship and Research Development Center at Annapolis, Maryland, she was used as a test hulk for structural evaluation and fire containment tests into the mid-1970s. She was finally scrapped in 1973. Tucumcari logged over 1500 "flying" hours during her brief service. The waterjet propulsion proved highly reliable, compared to the propeller drive propulsion of Flagstaff, and waterjet propulsion was later used for the Pegasus-class hydrofoil vessels. Awards National Defense Service Medal Vietnam Service Medal Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal See also List of patrol vessels of the United States Navy Boeing hydrofoils References Notes Sources External links Foilborne - US Navy Documentary on USS ''Tucumcari foils.org reference with pictures Navsource.org Tucumcari (PGH 2) Boeing hydrofoils Cold War patrol vessels of the United States Tucumcari, New Mexico Vietnam War ships 1967 ships Hydrofoils of the United States Ships built in Tacoma, Washington