Coast Guard Cutter Munro Joins RIMPAC Following 37-day Alaska Patrol

The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro conducts a boarding of a fishing vessel off the coast of Alaska.  Prior to their participation in RIMPAC, the Munro crew patrolled the maritime boundary line to prevent foreign fishing vessel incursions into U.S. waters.

Coast Guard Cutter Munro (WMSL-755) began participation Monday, August 17, in this year’s exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) following a 37-day Alaska patrol.

Ten nations are participating in this year’s RIMPAC, the world’s largest international maritime exercise held biennially in the waters surrounding Hawaii. This marks the 27th iteration hosted by the United States in the series that began in 1971.

Twenty-two surface ships, one submarine, multiple aircraft and approximately 5,300 personnel from Australia, Brunei, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, and the United States join forces from August 17 to August 31.

This year’s exercise includes multinational anti-submarine warfare, maritime intercept operations, and live-fire training events, among other cooperative training opportunities.

Prior to arriving in Hawaii for RIMPAC, the Munro crew deployed to the waters off Alaska, patrolling the maritime boundary line to prevent foreign fishing vessel incursions into U.S. waters. The crew conducted 11 living marine resource boardings, and oversaw the first Coast Guard operational deployment of an unmanned aerial system in the Bering Sea since 2018.

“I am incredibly proud of Munro’s crew and the work we accomplished in Alaskan waters,” said Capt. Blake Novak, Munro’s commanding officer. “We provided a Coast Guard presence, securing our border and protecting vital natural resources in the Bering Sea. We boarded fishing vessels as far north as the Arctic Circle and along the Aleutian Islands to ensure the U.S. fishing fleets continue to operate safely. Munro has transitioned and prepared to leverage our joint and combined capabilities in the Rim of the Pacific exercise.”

Embarked aboard Munro is a detachment from U.S. Navy Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 21, who completed over 40 hours of training on board prior to their integration in RIMPAC.

The at-sea-only construct for RIMPAC 2020 was developed to ensure the safety of all military forces participating, and Hawaii’s population, by minimizing shore-based contingents, while striking a balance between combating future adversaries and the COVID-19 threat. RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity designed to foster and sustain cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s interconnected oceans.

Coast Guard decommissions cutter after 52 years of service

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SEATTLE — The Coast Guard decommissioned the Coast Guard Cutter Mellon (WHEC 717) during a ceremony Thursday held at Coast Guard Base Seattle and presided over by Rear Adm. Peter Gautier, the deputy commander of the Coast Guard Pacific Area.

Mellon was one of the Coast Guard’s two remaining 378-foot Hamilton-class high endurance cutters. The fleet of high endurance cutters is being replaced by 418-foot Legend-class national security cutters, which serve as the Coast Guard’s primary long-range asset.

Commissioned in 1968, the Mellon was the third of twelve high endurance cutters built for long-range, high-endurance missions, including maritime security roles, drug interdiction, illegal immigrant interception and fisheries patrols.

“While Mellon’s service to the U.S. Coast Guard now ends, the ship will continue its legacy of good maritime governance after transfer to the Kingdom of Bahrain’s Royal Naval Force,” said Gautier. “I am incredibly confident in the Coast Guard’s future, because in Coast Guard Cutter Mellon’s crew and proud history, I see the attributes that have made our Coast Guard ‘Always Ready’ for more than two centuries.”

Mellon’s keel was laid July 25, 1966, at Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans. Mellon was launched Feb. 11, 1967, and commissioned Jan. 9, 1968. The cutter was named after Andrew W. Mellon, the 49th Secretary of the Treasury from 1921-1932.

Over the past 52 years of service, Mellon’s crews conducted a wide range of diverse operations in all parts of the world. From 1969 through 1972, Mellon’s crews participated in the Vietnam War, performing several naval gunfire support missions and patrolling Southeast Asian waters to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Vietnam. Mellon’s participation in the Vietnam War earned the ship the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation.

In the late-1970s and 1980s, the Mellon responded to numerous major search and rescue operations, including their assistance in the rescue of 510 passengers and crew members from the burning luxury liner Prinsendam in 1980.

In 1985, the Mellon entered the Fleet Renovation and Modernization program, a dry dock program designed to prolong high endurance cutters’ service life. Mellon was recommissioned March 3, 1989.

Living up to the Mellon’s motto “Primus Inter Pares,” meaning first among equals, the cutter established several Coast Guard firsts, including the first of five Hamilton-class high endurance cutters to have a Harpoon anti-ship missile system installed. Mellon was also the first, and only, Coast Guard cutter to test fire a Harpoon missile.

During Bering Sea patrols, Mellon conducted search and rescue operations and enforced laws and regulations that preserved vital Alaskan fisheries. In the Eastern Pacific, the Mellon’s boarding teams interdicted illegal narcotics trafficked over the high seas.

During the cutter’s last year of service, 20 officers and 160 enlisted crew members patrolled the Bering Sea and the Northern Pacific Ocean near Japan for more than a combined 230 days, collectively conducting 100 safety and fisheries boardings of U.S.-, Chinese-, Korean-, Japanese- and Russian-flagged fishing vessels and participating in five search-and-rescue cases.

“It has truly been an honor to serve as the final commanding officer for Coast Guard Cutter Mellon,” said Capt. Jonathan Musman. “The officers, chiefs and crew for this final year have been truly remarkable and can hold their heads high as they operated Mellon with distinction across the North Pacific on three deployments serving our nation. The reliability of the cutter is a product of years and years of properly taking care of this beloved cutter. The legacy of Mellon has been those fantastic memories that have been made and the knowledge that has passed from one shipmate to another. The future generations of cuttermen were here this last deployment learning, teaching and making their shipboard memories, and they are ready to carry on and continue the Coast Guard’s seagoing heritage.”