Photo Release: Coast Guard Cutter Dauntless celebrates 50 years of service

News Release

Feb. 01, 2018 U.S. Coast Guard 8th District Public Affairs Detachment Texas Contact: 8th District Public Affairs Detachment Texas Office: (281) 464-4810 After Hours: (832) 293-1293

Photo Release: Coast Guard Cutter Dauntless celebrates 50 years of service 

Editors' Note: Click on images to download high resolution version.

Lt. Cmdr. Ken Espinosa, chaplain to Sector Houston-Galveston and Sector Corpus Christi, offers the benediction at the close of a ceremony to honor the Coast Guard Cutter Dauntless' 50 years of service on Feb. 1, 2018 in Galveston, Texas. The Dauntless is a 210-foot medium-endurance Reliance class cutter, commissioned in 1968. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Johanna Strickland.

Cmdr. Timothy Sommella, commanding officer of the Coast Guard Cutter Dauntless, thanks members of his crew for their efforts in overhauling the main diesel engine aboard the cutter at a ceremony to honor the Dauntless' 50 years of service on Feb. 1, 2018 in Galveston, Texas. The Dauntless has been homeported in Galveston for almost 25 years. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Johanna Strickland.

Cmdr. Timothy Sommella, commanding officer of the Coast Guard Cutter Dauntless, and Petty Officer 1st Class Shelley Holliday, a yeoman, present two nautical certificates recently earned by the crew at a ceremony to honor the Dauntless' 50 years of service on Feb. 1, 2018 in Galveston, Texas. The certificates honor the crew's time crossing the Panama Canal and patrolling the Caribbean Ocean. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Johanna Strickland.

Rear Adm. Paul Thomas, commander of the Eighth Coast Guard District, addresses the crew at a ceremony to honor the Coast Guard Cutter Dauntless' 50 years of service on Feb. 1, 2018 in Galveston, Texas. Thomas commended the crews past and present for their history-making efforts of enforcing the laws and treaties of the United States and protecting mariners from the perils of the sea. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Johanna Strickland.

HOUSTON — The Coast Guard Cutter Dauntless hosted a ceremony to honor the cutter's 50 years of service Thursday in Galveston, Texas.

The Dauntless is a 210-foot medium-endurance Reliance class cutter, commissioned in 1968. On Jan. 7th, 1994, Dauntless was re-commissioned in Galveston where she has been homeported since.

Dauntless became the first cutter in history to seize one million pounds of marijuana and has over 85 illegal narcotics cases to her credit, more than any other cutter in the Coast Guard.

During the mass Cuban exodus between April 23 and May 13, 1980, the Dauntless towed over 25 vessels to safety, rescued eight persons adrift at sea and conducted 55 search and rescue cases. The ship's most publicized case occurred during January 1986, when Dauntless served as on-scene commander for the response to the space shuttle Challenger disaster. On Nov. 24, 1995, Dauntless rescued 578 migrants from an overloaded 75-foot coastal freighter, the largest number of migrants rescued from a single vessel in Coast Guard history.

The Dauntless’ motto is Sin Miedo which, in Spanish, means "Without Fear."

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