The official blog of the U.S. Coast Guard
Master Chief Angela M. McShan, a 20-year veteran of the Service, was the first African-American woman to achieve the enlisted rank of master chief and was a distinguished role model for the Coast Guard’s core values. Later this year, she will be honored as namesake of the new Fast Response Cutter Angela McShan.
In a time of unrest, when U-boats patrolled the icy waters of the North Atlantic, a crew of three bravely volunteered to serve the hazardous duty of rescue swimmer aboard Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba. Second Class Officer’s Steward Warren Deyampert worked on the cutter to develop a system of tethered rescue swimmers that ultimately saved well over 100 lives after an enemy submarine torpedoed U.S. Army transport Dorchester. Despite his secondary status in a segregated service, Deyampert placed the needs of others before his own and was posthumously awarded the Navy & Marine Corps Medal and Purple Heart Medal.
The Foundation for Coast Guard History presented an individual achievement award to Cmdr. Bill McKinstry for volunteering to serve on the fast response cutter naming tiger team. The team helps identify and locate relatives of former enlisted personnel heroes who were under consideration as possible FRC namesakes.
Coast Guard Art Program artist Robert Selby deployed with Coast Guard Cutter Joseph for two weeks in May 2018. While aboard, Selby executed an artist’s sketchbook in preparation for a painting that will take the work of the Coast Guard at Sector San Juan as its theme.
In July, Oliver Berry’s crew set a new milestone by deploying over the horizon to the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The 4,400 nautical mile trip marked marking the furthest deployment of an FRC to date for the Coast Guard and is the first deployment of its kind in the Pacific.
The Coast Guard recently released the names of the newest Fast Response Cutters to be commissioned. Each FRC is named after a Coast Guard hero. One such Coast Guardsman is Maurice Jester, a WWII hero.
The Coast Guard is building a class of cutters similar to the Morris-class designed to serve a multi-mission role. The “Sentinel”-class Fast Response Cutters (FRC) perform drug and migrant interdiction; ports, waterways and coastal security; fishery patrols; search and rescue; national defense; and much more. The Fast Response Cutters will form the mainstay of the Coast Guard’s coastal patrol fleet, providing multi-mission capabilities and interagency interoperability.
The Coast Guard Cutter Oliver Berry is the first of three operational fast response cutters to be commissioned in Hawaii. The FRCs are named after Coast Guard enlisted heroes and replace the 110-foot Island-class patrol boats.
Recapitalization. It’s a word that gets used regularly in the Coast Guard, but what does it really mean for the service? By prioritizing recapitalization, the Coast Guard is ensuring that it will receive the appropriate assets and systems necessary to successfully meet today’s demands and is laying the framework for continued efforts to replace and enhance the fleet in the decades to come.
The Coast Guard will commission its newest Fast Response Cutter, the Rollin A. Fritch, Nov. 18, 2016, in Cape May, New Jersey. The cutter’s namesake was a crewmember aboard the USS Callaway during World War II and died during a Kamikaze attack January 8, 1945.