Commemorative US NAVAL Ashtray For Icebreaker 'USCGC EASTWIND' 1960

This large porcelain ashtray is in MINT Condition and measures 7 1/4" square. The ICEBREAKER, USCGC EASTWIND -WAGB279 is depicted with the words...First Icebreaker Round The World(1960) A very nice piece of historical US NAVY memorabilia. USS EASTWIND was the second of the seven icebreakers of the "Wind" class constructed for the United States Coastguard ...commissioned 1944 with home port of Boston. Initially it was assigned to the fleet in charge of resupplying the allied bases in Greenland, and was one of the two icebreakers that participated in World War II. It had a central paper in the capture of a German meteorological detachment operating in Little Koldeyey and the capture of another German unit the ship "Externsteine" in neighborhoods of Shannon island. After the end of the war the Eastwind returned to his supplying tasks on the US Arctic stations serving several military and scientific programs. During one of those trips in 1952, the ship served as platform to launch several smalls stratospheric balloons under the scientific guidance of the famous scientist James Van Allen. During the rest of it'd service life, the icebreaker continued mainly with their routine of supplying the Arctic bases, with the exception of one trip to Antarctica in 1960, which become the first global circumnavigation of a ship of this kind and the participation in the so called operation "Deep Freeze" between years 1963 and 1967. Decommissioned December 1968, being sold for scrap 4 years later.