MEDIA ADVISORY: Coast Guard to commission newest ship in San Diego

U.S. Coast Guard sent this bulletin at 04/29/2019 07:14 PM EDT

united states coast guard 

News Release  

U.S. Coast Guard 11th District PA Detachment San Diego
Contact: Coast Guard PA Detachment San Diego
Office: (619) 278-7025
After Hours: (619) 252-1304
PA Detachment San Diego online newsroom

Coast Guard to commission newest ship in San Diego

Cutter Benjamin Bottoms Arrives in San Diego

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

Editors' Note: Media attending this event are requested to RSVP with Coast Guard Public Affairs Detachment San Diego personnel at (619) 252-1304. All media must have government-issued identification and media credentials to gain access to Sector San Diego. Please arrive by 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, to attend the commissioning.

WHO: Adm. Charles Ray, vice commandant of the Coast Guard, Rear Adm. Peter W. Gautier, 11th Coast Guard District commander, Lt. Lennie Day, Coast Guard Cutter Benjamin Bottoms commanding officer.

WHAT: The newest California-based Fast Response Cutter, the Coast Guard Cutter Benjamin Bottoms, is scheduled to be commissioned in San Diego.

WHEN: Wednesday at 10:15 a.m.

WHERE: Coast Guard Sector San Diego at 2710 N. Harbor Drive, San Diego, CA 92101

SAN DIEGO  — The Coast Guard is scheduled to commission the newest California-based 154-foot Fast Response Cutter in San Diego, Wednesday.

The Benjamin Bottoms is the fourth Sentinel-Class Fast Response Cutters (FRC) to be homeported at Base Los Angeles-Long Beach.

While these ships will be based in San Pedro, they will operate throughout the 11th 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.

To date, the Coast Guard has accepted delivery of more than 30 FRCs. Each ship 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: 

  • 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 east 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 and imagery of Coast Guard Cutter Benjamin Bottoms can be found at: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCG/bulletins/24136e5 

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/

 

-USCG-