Below is a Coast Guard news release.

Jan. 15, 2025

JUNEAU, Alaska – Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley (WMEC 39) was selected as the recipient of the 2024 Hopley Yeaton Cutter Excellence Award. 

For the second year in a row, Alex Haley earned the medium cutter of year award across the entire Coast Guard fleet. The Hopley Yeaton Cutter Excellence Award recognizes the ship that demonstrated exceptional performance across operations and mission accomplishment, commitment to crew and families, training and readiness, and engineering.

Spending nearly 200 days deployed in support of Coast Guard Pacific Area and District 17, Alex Haley embodied the proud tradition of the Bering Sea cutter, sailing from the Arctic Ocean to the furthest reaches of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. Leading all cutters in Bering Sea and Aleutian Island living marine resource law enforcement boardings to protect and help sustain Alaska fisheries, the ship also supported strategic United States Government priorities including intercepting and escorting a Russian warship across the Aleutian Islands. Most notably, the cutter and crew earned a Letter of Commendation from the International Maritime Organization for bravery saving eight mariners in distress while towing a fishing vessel 32 hours to safe harbor during a winter gale. 

Additionally, Alex Haley earned the 2024 Large Afloat Dining Facility of the Year award for best galley and was runner up for the 2024 Morale Program of the Year Award. The Alex Haley crew was awarded the Arctic Service Medal and the Operational Excellence “E” Award.   

“As the only major cutter homeported in Alaska, the ‘Bulldog of the Bering’ lives and operates in unforgiving conditions across a vast area of responsibility,” said Cmdr. Steven Baldovsky, Alex Haley ‘s commanding officer. “Our crew displayed exceptional mission execution and resilience against a challenging work-life balance – always answering the call and providing an incredible return on investment to the American people. I could not be any prouder of the crew and our amazing family support for the work Alex Haley did to earn the back-to-back Hopley Yeaton Cutter Excellence Awards.”

Alex Haley is a 282-foot Medium Endurance Cutter that performs search and rescue, fisheries law enforcement and maritime security across Alaska and has been homeported in Kodiak since 1999.   

National Defense reviews the current state of the US Coast Guard’s icebreaker fleet. There is probably nothing here we haven’t already heard, but it did include a question and answer with the Commandant that, as reported, might give the wrong impression,

“So, as a nation, we have one heavy icebreaker,” she said.

This led to the follow-up question of how many does Russia operate?

“Way more than one. It’s close to 40,” she said. Russia operates the world’s only fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers.

I think the Commandant was saying the Russians have about 40 icebreakers, not 40 heavy icebreakers.

The Russians do have the largest fleet of heavy icebreakers. Table B-1, page 51, of the Congression Research Service’s “Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter (Polar Icebreaker) Program: Background and Issues for Congress” dated November 19, 2024, indicates that as of April 4, 2022, Russia had 51 icebreakers (36 Government owned or operated and 15 Privately owned or operated), but only six operational icebreakers were classed PC1, PC2 or equivalent. The only other operational icebreaker with these characteristics was USCGC Polar Star. The Russians were reported to have 31 medium icebreakers classed PC3 or PC4 and 14 light icebreakers classed PC5 or PC6.

Only Russia and the US operate what the US Coast Guard would call a heavy icebreaker. Of the 104 icebreakers listed, from 20 countries, only 7 would be considered heavy icebreakers by the USCG.

Healy and Storis (formerly Aiviq) are considered medium icebreakers and Nathanirl B. Palmer and Sikuliaq are considered light icebreakers.

Clearly medium and light icebreakers have a role. Not every mission requires over 45,000 HP. The highly successful Wind class would now be considered light icebreakers and USCGC Glacier would barely qualify as a medium icebreaker. Sometimes smaller size is actually an advantage. There are probably places where two medium icebreakers might be preferable to only one heavy icebreaker, if only to provide a degree of redundancy.

So why aren’t we building some medium icebreakers? We know there is a stated Coast Guard has a requirement for nine icebreakers and four or five are expected to be medium icebreakers. So why haven’t we at least started the procurement process for those medium icebreakers? So far not even a Request for Proposal.

If we use the current approach, we are probably not going to see the first new Arctic Security Cutter (medium icebreaker) until 2035 even if the process starts now.

The Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, or ICE Pact may provide another way. Hopefully the US and Canadian Coast Guards could get together to come up with a set of requirements and optional enhancements both could agree on and ask the Finnish partners to detailed design a medium icebreaker that would be welcomed by both services. It the final design is acceptable, have the Finnish yard build the prototype. It successful then determine where follow on ships should be built.

This isn’t a short process, but it does not get shorter if we wait to start. A prototype built quickly in Finland would allow the proof of concept testing the GAO keeps telling the Coast Guard that they should do before building the second and later ships of a class.

If the Congress and Administration actually feel any urgency for additional presence in the Arctic, the Coast Guard should try to offer them a shortcut.

Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso

Wreck of Ayrshire Rescue by Life Car

1850  The wreck of Ayrshire on occurred on Squan Beach, New Jersey on this date in 1850.  All but one of the 202 persons on board were saved by a life car.  This was the first recorded use of a life car in the U.S.

Unopposed US military landing at Constantine Harbor, Amchitka, Aleutians, 12 January 1943.

1943  Coast Guardsmen participated in the landings at Amchitka, Alaska.

“Once on the ground the island was cleared and found to be empty of Japanese military.^[6][7] During the first night ashore a “willowaw” (violent squall) smashed many of the landing boats and swept a troop transport aground. On the second day a blizzard wracked the island with snow, sleet, and biting wind. Lasting for nearly two weeks, the blizzard finally subsided enough to reveal to a Japanese scout plane from Kiska the American beachhead on Amchitka.”

52 foot MLB Triumph (MLB-52301)

1961  Two Coast Guard craft from the Cape Disappointment Lifeboat Station (LBS), CG-40564 and CG-36454, answered a call for assistance from the 38-foot crab boat Mermaid, with two crew on board, which had lost its rudder near the breakers off Peacock Spit.  CG-40564 located the Mermaid and took her in tow.  Due to adverse sea conditions the crew of CG-40564 requested the assistance of CG-52301 “Triumph,” stationed at Point Adams LBS, which took up the tow upon her arrival on scene.  Heavy breakers capsized CG-40564 and battered the CG-36454, but the 36-foot motor lifeboat (MLB) stayed afloat.  The crew of CG–36454 then located and rescued the crew of the CG-40564 and made for the Columbia River Lightship.  The crew of the CG–36454 managed to deposit safely all on board the lightship before it too foundered.  Soon thereafter, a heavy breaker hit Triumph which parted the tow line, set the Mermaid adrift, and capsized the Triumph.   The crew of the Mermaid then rescued one of the six crewman on board Triumph.   CG-36554 and CG-36535, also from the Point Adams LBS, then arrived on scene and CG–36535 took the Mermaid in tow.  Another large breaker hit, snapping the CG-36535’s tow line and sinking the Mermaid.   CGC Yocona arrived on scene soon after Coast Guard aircraft UF 2G No. 1273 from Air Station Port Angeles and began searching for survivors.  Other CG aircraft, including UF 2G 2131, UF 2G 1240, and HO 4S 1330, arrived and began dropping flares.  Foot patrols from the life-boat stations searched the beaches as well and recovered one Coast Guard survivor.  Ultimately five Coast Guard crewman, all from MLB CG-52301 Triumph, drowned, as did both of the Mermaid’s crew.

USCGC Tupelo (WLB-303)

1963  CGC Tupelo, four Navy and one Ohio State Highway patrol helicopters, CG-44002D, three ice skiffs and crews from Marblehead Lifeboat Station, Sandusky Light Station, Lorain Lifeboat Station, and a panel truck from Toledo CG Moorings were dispatched to rescue 150 persons reported adrift on an ice floe off Reno Beach, Lake Erie, 10 miles east of Toledo, Ohio during a severe storm that had winds gusting to 40 knots.  Four persons, also adrift, reached a breakwater offshore.  Tupelo, using ship’s boats, removed four persons from the breakwater and the panel truck crew passed a line to the ice floe and anchored it to the shore.  All 150 persons were brought safely ashore without incident.  The helicopters searched the surrounding area to ensure that no others were adrift.  Commander Ninth Coast Guard District stated that the prompt action of all the commands and agencies involved averted a “serious catastrophe and sent a ‘Well Done’ message to all participants.”

Republic of Korea Coast Guard vessel #3006 in company with U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Boutwell (WHEC-719) during the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum in August 2007. This forum was created to increase international maritime safety and security in the Northern Pacific Ocean and its borders. The Boutwell worked with the Korean coast guard while on their way to Yokosuka, Japan. The Japanese coast guard is one of the six nations involved in the forum.

2009  CGC Boutwell departed Alameda, California, on an around-the-world cruise as part of the USS Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Crews from the Coast Guard Cutters Tahoma and Mohawk evacuate Haitian refugees, some critically injured, from a makeshift clinic at a Haitian Coast Guard Base. The Coast Guard Cutters received additional medical assistance, two doctors and three corpsmen, from the USS Carl Vinson. The additional resources have allowed Coast Guard crews to speed-up the stabilization efforts and movement of those injured. U.S. Coast Guard photo.

2010  A severe earthquake struck Haiti. USCGCs Forward, Mohawk, and Tahoma were the first U.S. assets to arrive on scene at Port au Prince, with Forward arriving the morning of January 13, 2010 and Mohawk arriving in the afternoon.  These units provided air traffic control for military aircraft, conducted damage assessments of the port, and ferried supplies and injured people with embarked boats and helicopters.  Other Coast Guard assets began arriving soon thereafter to assist in the recovery efforts, including the USCGC Oak and aircraft from AIRSTA Clearwater.

Two Waterways Commerce Cutter variants – an Inland Construction Tender (top) and River Buoy Tender (bottom) (Credit: Birdon America)

The Acquisitions Directorate (CG-9) has “released a request for proposal (RFP) on Dec. 18, 2024, for the design and construction of the cutter boat-aids to navigation-small (CB-ATON-S). The RFP is available on SAM.gov here.”

Below is a description of the program from the RFP:

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is in the process of recapitalizing the current fleet of Waterways Commerce Cutters (WCC), which includes Inland Construction Tenders, Inland Buoy Tenders, and River Buoy Tenders.  As part of this recapitalization effort, the USCG is also replacing the existing cutter boats deployed on these cutters and determined that there is a requirement for up to fifty-one (51) new cutter boat aids-to-navigation small (CB-ATON-S).  The CB-ATON-S will primarily support the WCC’s aids to navigation (ATON) mission, providing autonomous operations and mission execution in areas physically inaccessible by a cutter and allowing for separate, simultaneous operations in collaboration with the cutter. The CB-ATON-S will also support secondary search and rescue and other law enforcement missions.

The USCG also intends to procure up to fifteen (15) CB-ATON-S for Aids to Navigation Teams to maintain small navigational aids within their area of responsibility.

In total, the Coast Guard intends to procure up to sixty-six (66) CB-ATON-S from this contract.

Technical specifications are in a 104 page document which is available as attachment 2 to the request for proposal, but I will provide some basics below.

045.10.1 The CB-ATON-S shall meet the following principal characteristics:

• 045.10.1.1 Length, overall (maximum, outboard motors lowered to the operating position, including appendages and fendering): 21 feet, 0 inches (6.4 meters)
• 045.10.1.2 Beam, overall (maximum, including appendages and fendering): 8 feet, 6 inches;
• 045.10.1.3 Draft, static (maximum, outboards up in the trailer/cradle position): 1 foot, 0 inches;
• 045.10.1.4 Height (maximum, on trailer): 12 feet, 6 inches;
• 045.10.1.5 Weight (maximum, Hoisting Weight Condition): 3,000 pounds

The boats will be provided with a protective keel at least 12 inches wide to prevent damage during occasional grounding and beaching during operations.

Each boat will come with a trailer.

We have a report from MSN,

“The captain and first mate of a Mexican fishing vessel are in federal custody after slugging it out at sea with members of the U.S. Coast Guard trying to board their boat.”

The fishing vessel had landed four immigrants and the two boat crewmen were also ashore when border agents arrived on scene. The two crewmen fled to their boat in an attempt to escape. The Coast Guard was called and a vessel dispatched (no indication of type but I surmise something like a response boat medium). The fishing vessel rammed the CG vessel, and the F/V crew resisted arrest.

It is not clear when this happened. Court documents have already been filed and made public. Curiously, I could find no Coast Guard press release on the incident.

Thanks to Joseph L. for bringing this to my attention.