SEATTLE — The 150-member crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star returned March 11 to their homeport of Seattle following a 105-day deployment to Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze, the Coast Guard Pacific Area said in a release.

Deep Freeze is an annual joint military service mission in support of the National Science Foundation, the lead agency for the United States Antarctic Program. Since 1955, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Coast Guard have assisted in providing air and maritime support throughout the Antarctic continent.

This year marks the 63rd iteration of the annual operation. The Polar Star crew left Seattle on Nov. 27 for their sixth deployment in as many years and traveled 11,200 nautical miles to Antarctica.

Upon arrival in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, the Polar Star broke through 16.5 nautical miles of ice, 6 to 10 feet thick, to open a channel to the pier at McMurdo Station. Once the channel was open, the crew refueled Polar Star at McMurdo Station, the United States’ main logistics hub in Antarctica. After a three-day port visit to McMurdo, the ship provided a six-hour familiarization cruise to 156 McMurdo station personnel.

On Jan. 30, Polar Star escorted the containership Ocean Giant through the channel, enabling a 10-day offload of 499 containers with 10 million pounds of goods that will resupply McMurdo Station, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and other U.S. field camps for the coming year. The Ocean Giant is an ice strengthened vessel contracted by the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command for Operation Deep Freeze.

As in years past, getting the 43-year-old Polar Star to Antarctica was accomplished despite a series of engineering casualties aboard the ship. Commissioned in 1976, the cutter is operating beyond its expected 30-year service life. It is scheduled for a service life extension project starting in 2021.

During the transit to Antarctica, one of the ship’s electrical systems began to smoke, causing damage to wiring in an electrical switchboard, and one of the ship’s two evaporators used to make drinkable water failed. The electrical switchboard was repaired by the crew, and the ship’s evaporator was repaired after parts were received during a port call in Wellington, New Zealand.

The impact from ice operations ruptured the cutter’s centerline shaft seal, allowing water to flood into the ship. Icebreaking operations ceased so embarked Coast Guard and Navy divers could enter the water to apply a patch outside the hull so Polar Star’s engineers could repair the seal from inside the ship. The engineers donned dry suits and diver’s gloves to enter the 30-degree water of the still slowly flooding bilge to make the vital repairs. They used special tools fabricated onboard to fix the leaking shaft seal and resume icebreaking operations.

The Polar Star also experienced shipwide power outages while breaking ice in McMurdo Sound. Crew members spent nine hours shutting down the ship’s power plant and rebooting the electrical system to recover from the outages.

On Feb. 10, the crew spent nearly two hours extinguishing a fire in the ship’s incinerator room while the ship was about 650 nautical miles north of McMurdo Sound. The fire damaged the incinerator and some electrical wiring in the room was damaged by firefighting water. There were no injuries or damage to equipment outside the space. Repairs to the incinerator are already scheduled for Polar Star’s upcoming in-port maintenance period.

Presently, the U.S. Coast Guard maintains two icebreakers — the Coast Guard Cutter Healy, which is a medium icebreaker, and the Polar Star, the United States’ only heavy icebreaker. If a catastrophic event, such as getting stuck in the ice, were to happen to the Healy in the Arctic or to the Polar Star near Antarctica, the U.S. Coast Guard is left without a self-rescue capability.

By contrast, Russia operates more than 50 icebreakers — several of which are nuclear powered.

Reserved for Operation Deep Freeze each year, the Polar Star spends the Southern Hemisphere summer breaking ice near Antarctica, and when the mission is complete, the ship returns annually to dry dock to complete critical maintenance and repairs in preparation for the next Operation Deep Freeze mission. Once out of dry dock, the ship returns to Antarctica, and the cycle repeats.

The Coast Guard has been the sole provider of the nation’s polar icebreaking capability since 1965 and is seeking to increase its icebreaking fleet with six new polar icebreakers to ensure continued national presence and access to the Polar Regions.

In the fiscal year 2019 budget, Congress appropriated $655 million to begin construction of a new polar security cutter this year, with another $20 million appropriated for long-lead-time materials to build a second cutter.

In response to the demands of the region, the service is set to release an updated version of its Arctic Strategy, which Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz is scheduled to discuss March 21 during his annual State of the Coast Guard address.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The U.S. Coast Guard and local agencies rescued 46 ice fishermen from an ice floe that broke free near Catawaba Island in Lake Erie on March 9, the Coast Guard 9th District said in a release of the same date.

An additional estimated 100 people were able to self-rescue from the ice floe either by swimming or walking on ice bridges that were still connected to the floe.

At 8:13 a.m., Coast Guard Station Marblehead received notification from an Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) representative that there were approximately 100 people stranded on an ice floe and that there were an additional 30 to 40 people in the water. Coast Guard District 9 Command Center launched two 20-foot Special Purpose Craft–airboats from Station Marblehead, two MH-65 Dolphin helicopters from Air Station Detroit, and two MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters from Air Station Traverse City to respond for a mass rescue.

Catawaba Island Fire, Put-in-Bay Fire and Southshore Towing also responded with airboats, while ODNR, North Central Emergency Medical Services and Danbury EMS assisted in the search-and-rescue efforts.

Coast Guard Station Marblehead arrived on scene at approximately 8:50 a.m. and there were no persons in the water. Those who had fallen in or intentionally entered the water to try to swim to land were all back on the ice or land.

Approximately 100 people were able to walk to shore via portions of ice that were still unbroken; however, as the temperature continued to rise, the ice broke into multiple separate ice floes. The remaining fishermen were rescued by the airboat crews and helicopter crews.

By approximately 11:15 a.m., all persons who had been stranded on the ice were rescued.

As temperatures begin to rise, the Coast Guard strongly urges people not to go out onto ice. Ice may look safe, but it is difficult to determine the thickness visually and the increase in warm weather will continue to melt and weaken the ice.

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. —The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Bernard C. Webber (WPC-1101) on March 2 interdicted 23 illegal migrants with multiple nationalities 11 miles east of Pompano Beach attempting to illegally enter the United States, the Coast Guard 7th District said in a March 6 release.

The Bernard C. Webber crew sighted a 25-foot cabin cruiser with six adult Chinese females —three of whom were interdicted by the Coast Guard less than year ago for illegal entry into the United States —one adult Guyanese female, one adult Colombian female, five adult Haitian females, six adult Haitian males, three accompanied Haitian male minors and one unaccompanied Haitian male onboard.

“These illegal maritime migration voyages are extremely dangerous and put the safety of those aboard in great jeopardy. The Coast Guard remains poised to intercept these smuggling events in an effort to prevent the unnecessary loss of life,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Etelmaki, boarding officer for the Bernard C. Webber.

Six of the migrants interdicted —four Chinese nationals, one Guyanese national and one Haitian national —were handed over to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for processing and Homeland Security Investigations is looking into the case. The remaining 17 migrants were transferred to the Royal Bahamian Defense Force and appropriate child services in Freeport, Bahamas, on March 3.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Coast Guard commissioned a new, California-based 154-foot fast response cutter (FRC), named the Robert Ward, in San Francisco on March 2.

The Robert Ward is the second of four Sentinel-Class FRCs to be homeported at Coast Guard Base Los Angeles-Long Beach. While the FRCs will be based in Southern California, they will operate throughout the 11th Coast Guard District, which includes all of California and international waters off Mexico and Central America.

“This cutter is specifically designed to face today’s threats in the maritime domain,” said Rear Adm. Peter Gautier, commander of the 11th Coast Guard District. “This cutter is faster, goes further and can do more than any other Coast Guard patrol boat.”

FRCs are 154-foot multimission 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.

“The crew and I are truly honored to serve aboard such a capable platform, and we look forward to continuing the Coast Guard’s vital missions throughout California and the Pacific,” said Lt. Benjamin Davne, Robert Ward’s commanding officer.

To date, the Coast Guard has accepted delivery of 31 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. Robert Ward operated beach-landing boats during the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. He landed his craft on the Cotentin Peninsula and rescued two stranded boat crews in the face of a heavily fortified enemy assault.

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — The Coast Guard celebrated the graduation of the first pre-deployment training class at Special Missions Training Center here on March 1.

Class 19-01’s 104 students mark the first group to graduate from the Camp Lejeune location since the course was relocated from Portsmouth, Va., last May.

The SMTC crew made preparations for the inaugural Camp Lejeune-based course, which convened Sept 10, to be the first to graduate from the new location. But Hurricane Florence forced the staff and 90 students to evacuate to Charlotte.

The SMTC staff utilized makeshift classrooms at a hotel for classroom training and capitalized on relationships with Naval Operations Support Center, also in Charlotte, for medical screening and initial weapons classroom training. The students received weapons qualifications, water survival training master and responder qualifications, tactical combat casualty care instructor training, maritime tactical-egress and firearms instructor school qualifications.

After moving several times, the hurricane passed, but no one could return home or to SMTC due to the devastation at the Marine Corps base.

“SMTC trains over 300 members deploying to Patrol Forces Southwest Asia each year,” said Capt. Adrian West, commander of the Special Missions Training Center. “Our highly trained and competent instructor staff does a great job each course preparing our Coast Guard men and women for deployment to the U.S. Central Command area.”

Vice Adm. Scott A. Buschman, Coast Guard Atlantic Area commander, was the keynote speaker at the March 1 graduation while Capt. J. Paul Gregg, PATFORSWA commodore, watched as his first class of students graduated.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Coast Guard law enforcement crews detected and interdicted three Mexican lancha boat crews illegally fishing in federal waters off southern Texas on Feb. 27, the Coast Guard 8th District said in a release.

Coast Guard crews stopped three lanchas with a combined 13 Mexican fishermen engaged in illegal fishing. A total of 3,533 pounds of red snapper and 1,122 pounds of shark was onboard the lanchas. The lancha boats, with fishing gear onboard, were seized. The Mexican fishermen were detained and transferred to border enforcement agents for processing.

A lancha is a slender fishing boat that is 20 to 30 feet long, typically has one outboard motor and is capable of traveling at speeds exceeding 30 mph. Lanchas are frequently used to transport illegal narcotics to the U.S. and fish illegally in the United States’ Exclusive Economic Zone near the U.S.-Mexico border in the Gulf of Mexico.

Coast Guard Sector/Air Station Corpus Christi has interdicted 16 lanchas north of the U.S.-Mexico Maritime Border in the month of February and 43 lanchas since Oct. 1, 2018.

HONOLULU — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Sequoia (WLB 215) returned on Feb. 25 to Apra Harbor, Guam, following a multicutter patrol in response to Super Typhoon Wutip, the Coast Guard 14th District said in a Feb. 28 release.

Wutip was the strongest February storm in the Western Pacific Ocean in 70 years. While underway, the Sequoia led a typhoon avoidance group with the two 110-foot Island Class Patrol Boats from Guam.

“Our mission is two-fold in a situation like Typhoon Wutip,” said Lt. Cmdr. Christian Adams, Sequoia’s commanding officer. “The first is to protect our response capabilities during the storm and conduct emergency search and rescue. This allows us to complete our second mission, to assist in response efforts following the storm’s passing.”

Before the typhoon, Sequoia’s crew was one of the few Coast Guard units underway during the recent government shutdown. Leaving Guam in early January, they traveled over 8,146 statute miles (7,079 nautical miles) to conduct aids to navigation maintenance and replacement in American Samoa and Kwajalein Atoll.

The care of aids to navigation (ATON) is a vital service the crew of the Sequoia provides to the Western Pacific. Their mission ties directly into the commandant’s Maritime Commerce Strategic Outlook released last year. As a maritime nation, the upkeep of ATON ensures commerce continues safely and ensures remote places like American Samoa have access to an ever-expanding world economy. While on patrol the Sequoia crew worked nine floating aids and 11 fixed aids, including three navigation ranges. These are buoys and day boards assisting mariners in the navigation of a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Sequoia’s primary roles have been to assist our partners in the Pacific in the care of their ATON and, through joint fisheries boardings, enforce conservation and management measures established by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission. This allows maritime nations in the region to conserve commercial fish stocks and ensures this vital resource remains sustainable for years to come. Due to operations and scheduling this patrol focused on ATON and training in small boat evolutions and buoy deck operations roles. The crew overcame several challenges, including communications issues, engine temperatures and deck equipment.

“I’m proud of this crew for rising to the occasion and completing the mission in an area that is not normally part of our responsibility offering such a complex supply chain,” Adams said.

As a maritime service, the Coast Guard participates in many traditions, some dating back centuries. During the patrol, the cutter made a crossing at the intersection of the Equator and International Dateline and partook in the time-honored tradition of

inducting 36 crewmembers as “Golden Shellbacks.” During a ceremony, the new Golden Shellbacks received a certificate commemorating the event.

“As with all seafarers, there are certain milestones we celebrate as unique and worthy of remembrance honoring our nautical traditions,” Adams said. “Being a Golden Shellback is a fun, unofficial way to celebrate our growth as mariners.”

This patrol aligns with the District 14 plan to provide for continued safety of navigation during the anticipated gap in buoy-tender coverage in the Pacific associated with the midlife maintenance schedule for the 225-foot sea going buoy tenders fleetwide.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The 150-member crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star fought a fire at about 9 p.m. PST Feb. 10 that broke out in the ship’s incinerator room about 650 miles north of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, the Coast guard Pacific Area said in a Feb 28 release.

After initial response efforts using four fire extinguishers failed, fire crews spent almost two hours putting out the fire. Fire damage was contained inside the incinerator housing, while firefighting water used to cool exhaust pipes in the surrounding area damaged several electrical systems and insulation in the room. Repairs are already being planned for the Polar Star’s upcoming maintenance period. The incinerator will need to be fully functional before next year’s mission.

No injuries were reported, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

“It’s always a serious matter whenever a shipboard fire breaks out at sea, and it’s even more concerning when that ship is in one of the most remote places on Earth,” said Vice Adm. Linda Fagan, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Pacific Area. “The crew of the Polar Star did an outstanding job — their expert response and determination ensured the safety of everyone aboard.”

Commissioned in 1976, the 43-year-old icebreaker is operating beyond its expected 30-year service life. The Polar Star crew recently completed Operation Deep Freeze, an annual joint military service mission in support of the National Science Foundation, the lead agency for the United States Antarctic Program. Since 1955, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has assisted in providing air and maritime support throughout the Antarctic continent.

This year marks the 63rd iteration of the annual operation, and the Polar Star crew departed their homeport of Seattle Nov. 27 for their sixth deployment in as many years and traveled more than 11,200 miles to Antarctica.

Upon arrival, the Polar Star broke nearly 17 miles of ice, 6 to 10 feet thick, to open a channel through McMurdo Sound. Once complete, the crew refueled at McMurdo Station, the main U.S. logistics hub in Antarctica. The ship also provided a six-hour familiarization cruise in McMurdo Sound to 156 randomly selected station personnel.

On Jan. 30, the Polar Star escorted the containership Ocean Giant through the channel, enabling a 10-day offload of nearly 500 containers with 10 million pounds of goods that will resupply McMurdo Station, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and other U.S. field camps.

The Feb. 10 fire was not the first engineering casualty faced by the Polar Star crew this deployment. While en route to Antarctica, one of the ship’s electrical systems began to smoke, causing damage to wiring in an electrical switchboard, and one of

the ship’s two evaporators used to make drinkable water failed. The electrical switchboard was repaired by the crew, and the ship’s evaporator was repaired after parts were received during a port call in Wellington, New Zealand.

The ship also experienced a leak from the shaft that drives the ship’s propeller, which halted icebreaking operations to send scuba divers into the water to repair the seal around the shaft. A hyperbaric chamber on loan from the U.S. Navy aboard the ship allows Coast Guard divers to make external emergency repairs and inspections of the ship’s hull at sea.

The Polar Star also experienced shipwide power outages while breaking ice. Crewmembers spent nine hours shutting down the ship’s power plant and rebooting the electrical system to remedy the outages.

The U.S. Coast Guard maintains two icebreakers — the Coast Guard Cutter Healy, which is a medium icebreaker, and the Polar Star, the only U.S. heavy icebreaker. If a catastrophic event, such as getting stuck in the ice, were to happen to the Healy in the Arctic or to the Polar Star near Antarctica, the Coast Guard is left without a self-rescue capability.

Russia by contrast operates more than 40 icebreakers — several of which are nuclear-powered.

Reserved for Operation Deep Freeze each year, the Polar Star spends the Southern Hemisphere summer breaking ice near Antarctica, and when the mission is complete, the Polar Star returns annually to dry dock to complete critical maintenance and repairs in preparation for the next Operation Deep Freeze mission. Once out of dry dock, the ship returns to Antarctica, and the cycle repeats.

The Coast Guard has been the sole provider of the nation’s polar icebreaking capability since 1965 and is seeking to increase its icebreaking fleet with six new polar security cutters to ensure continued national presence and access to the Polar Regions.

“While we focus our efforts on creating a peaceful and collaborative environment in the Arctic, we’re also responding to the impacts of increased competition in this strategically important region,” Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz said. “Our continued presence will enable us to reinforce positive opportunities and mitigate negative consequences today and tomorrow.”

After leaving Antarctica, the Polar Star crew arrived in New Zealand for a port call, and they are now en route to their homeport of Seattle.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Vigilant returned home Feb. 26 to Cape Canaveral after a two-month Caribbean patrol.

Vigilant’s crew returned to their homeport of Cape Canaveral, concluding a patrol in which the crew enforced U.S. federal laws by conducting numerous boardings throughout the Caribbean while working with other government agencies and international partners to increase national security.

While at sea, the crew disrupted the illegal and perilous voyages of 100 Haitian migrants and ensured their safe return to their home country. Vigilant’s crew also saved the lives of three men who had been lost at sea for four days without food and water and returned the survivors to their home country after providing necessary medical attention.

“Maintaining and operating a 54-year-old ship requires great effort and a lot of dedication from everyone onboard,” said Cmdr. Jerome Dubay, Vigilant’s commanding officer. “This crew continuously meets the challenge, making mission success possible. I am proud of the compassion and professionalism our crewmembers displayed during every boarding and while assisting the migrants back to their country.”

The Vigilant is a multimission 210-foot Medium Endurance Cutter whose missions include illegal drug and migrant interdiction as well as search and rescue. The Vigilant patrols throughout the Caribbean basin and Atlantic seaboard to ensure safety of life at sea and enforce international and domestic laws.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Dependable returned home to Virginia Beach, Va., on Feb. 25 after a 59-day patrol in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the Coast Guard 5th District said in a Feb. 26 release.

While deployed, Dependable’s crew aided Joint Interagency Task Force South in conducting counter-drug and alien migrant interdiction operations.

During their patrol, Dependable’s boarding team intercepted a go-fast vessel off the coast of Mexico that was specially fitted to smuggle contraband. Once on scene, the boarding team confirmed that the vessel was carrying narcotics along with three suspected drug smugglers. The interdiction resulted in the seizure of about 1,235 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated street value of $18 million.

Dependable’s crew also worked alongside four partner assets to patrol an operational area roughly the size of the U.S. The cutter’s crew worked with the U.S. Navy and Customs and Border Protection Maritime Patrol Aircraft to conduct aerial surveillance alongside other Coast Guard cutters patrolling the region. As a result of these collaborations, Dependable’s crew was able to assist Coast Guard Cutter Alert’s crew with a transfer of drugs and suspected smugglers apprehended in previous interdictions.

The Dependable crew also leveraged the cutter’s embarked Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON), the members of which launched in an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter and disrupted a drug-smuggling operation. The squadron seized an estimated 1,653 pounds of cocaine worth about $25 million and intended for delivery to Mexico.

The Dependable crew sailed 12,904 miles and traveled nearly as far south as the Galapagos Islands and as far west as Acapulco, Mexico. In addition to the cutter’s permanent crewmembers, teams from Tactical Law Enforcement Team South, based in Miami, and HITRON, based in Jacksonville, Fla., were aboard for the patrol. Each team provided expertise regarding maritime law enforcement and aerial use of force.

The Virginia Beach-based Cutter Dependable is a 210-foot Reliance-class medium-endurance cutter with a permanent crew of 77. They conduct homeland security missions in the offshore waters of the Western Hemisphere, from New England to the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific.

Having surpassed its 50th year of service to America last November, Dependable and the other 26 medium-endurance cutters are slated for replacement by new Offshore Patrol Cutters beginning in 2021.