MEDIA AVAILABILITY: Coast Guard to receive second of new class of coastal patrol cutter in California

News Release

U.S. Coast Guard 11th District PA Detachment LA/LB Contact: Coast Guard PA Detachment LA/LB Office: (310) 521-4260 After Hours: (310) 781-0619 PA Detachment LA/LB online newsroom

Coast Guard to receive second of new class of coastal patrol cutter in California

 

Editors' Note: Media attending this event must RSVP with the Coast Guard Public Affairs Detachment Los Angeles-Long Beach personnel at (310) 781-0619 no later than 9:00 a.m. Wednesday. All media must have a government-issued identification card and media credentials to gain access to base Los Angeles-Long Beach. Entry to base will be allowed to media on the day of the event at 11:15 a.m. Media will be allowed to get aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Robert Ward and ride the cutter as it pulls into its homeport for the first time. Media who wish to get aboard the Fast Response Cutter are required to wear closed toe shoes and pants.

 

WHO: Capt. Monica Rochester, the Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach commander, Lt. Benjamin Davne, the Coast Guard Cutter Robert Ward commanding officer.

WHAT: The second California based Fast Response Cutter, the Coast Guard Cutter Robert Ward, is scheduled to arrive at Base Los Angeles-Long Beach.

WHEN: Wednesday at 11:15 a.m.

WHERE: Coast Guard Base Los Angeles-Long Beach at 1001 S. Seaside Ave., San Pedro, CA 90731

 

SAN PEDRO, Calif. — The Coast Guard is scheduled to receive the second California based 154-foot Fast Response Cutter in San Pedro, Wednesday.

 

The Coast Guard Cutter Robert Ward, a Sentinel-Class Fast Response Cutters (FRC), is scheduled to arrive at its new homeport at Coast Guard Base Los Angeles-Long Beach, where the crew will begin training to become certified in law enforcement and rescue operations.

 

The Robert Ward is slated to be the second of four FRCs to be homeported at Base Los Angeles-Long Beach and is scheduled to be officially commissioned in February.

 

Two additional FRCs are scheduled to arrive and be commissioned by summer of 2019. While these ships will be based in San Pedro, they will operate throughout the 11^th Coast Guard District, which includes all of California and international waters off of Mexico and Central America.  

 

FRC’s are 154-foot multi-mission ships designed to conduct: drug and migrant interdictions; ports, waterways and coastal security operations; fisheries and environmental protection patrols; national defense missions; and search and rescue.

 

Each cutter is designed for a crew of 24, has a range of 2,500 miles and is equipped for patrols up to five days. The FRCs are part of the Coast Guard’s overall fleet modernization initiative.

 

FRCs feature advanced command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment as well as over-the-horizon response boat deployment capability and improved habitability for the crew. The ships can reach speeds of 28 knots and are equipped to coordinate operations with partner agencies and long-range Coast Guard assets such as the Coast Guard’s National Security Cutters.

 

FRCs are named in honor of Coast Guard enlisted leaders, trailblazers and heroes. The four California-based FRCs are scheduled to be:

• Forrest Rednour (WPC-1129) - Rednour aided in the rescue of 133 people during the sinking of the U.S.A.T. Dorchester, Feb. 3, 1943. He was awarded the Purple Heart and Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his actions. Rednour lost his life in the sinking of the Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba in June 1943.
• Robert Ward (WPC-1130) - Ward operated beach-landing boats during the Normandy invasion. He landed his craft on the Cotentin Peninsula and rescued two stranded boat crews in the face of a heavily fortified enemy assault. 
• Terrell Horne III (WPC-1131) – Horne was murdered by suspected drug smugglers who intentionally rammed the boat he and fellow Coast Guardsmen were aboard during law enforcement operations near Santa Cruz Island off the Southern California coast in December 2012. Horne pushed one of his shipmates out of the way of the oncoming vessel attack and sustained fatal injuries.
• Benjamin Bottoms (WPC-1132) – Bottoms was part the Coast Guard aircrew that rescued an Army aircrew from a downed B-17 off the west coast of Greenland in 1942. Bottoms and the pilot conducted the first landing of a cutter plane on an icecap and commenced a two-day rescue over a rugged arctic terrain that required multiple flights. During the second day of rescue operations, radio contact with Bottoms’ plane was lost and he was declared missing in action.  

More information on Coast Guard FRCs can be found at: https://www.dcms.uscg.mil/Our-Organization/Assistant-Commandant-for-Acquisitions-CG-9/Programs/Surface-Programs/Fast-Response-Cutters/

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