Coast Guard Names New Cutters After 9/11 Heroes

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz is joined on stage by Lisa Palazzo and Angela Danz-Donahue during a Nov. 12 ceremony naming two new cutters after their late husbands, Port Security Specialist 2nd Class Vincent Danz and Machinery Technician 1st Class Jeffrey Palazzo. U.S. Coast Guard/Petty Officer 2nd Class Cory Mendenhall

NEW YORK — The U.S. Coast Guard will name two of its new Sentinel-class fast-response cutters in honor of two public servants and Coast Guardsmen who lost their lives responding to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, the Coast Guard 1st District announced in a Nov. 12 release. 

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz made the announcement in New York’s Battery Park flanked by Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner James O’Neill and Fire Chief John Sudnik. 

The two new cutters will be named for Vincent Danz and Jeffrey Palazzo. 

Palazzo served as a Coast Guard reservist and New York firefighter at Rescue 5 in Staten Island. He died while helping others at the World Trade Center. Danz, also a Coast Guard reservist, was a police officer with the emergency services unit in the Bronx and was helping victims at Ground Zero when the Trade Center collapsed. 

A fast-response cutter (FRC) in New York Harbor on Nov. 12, when Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz announced that two new FRCs will be named in honor of 9/11 heroes Vincent Danz and Jeffrey Palazzo. U.S. Coast Guard/Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hightower

“We are humbled and grateful for the opportunity to honor these brave men whose service and sacrifice spanned three great first-responder organizations,” Schultz said. “Their broad military and public service to both the nation and City of New York demonstrated their incredible dedication and character. When the call came, they answered. We are certain that the men and women who serve aboard Coast Guard Cutter Vincent Danz and Coast Guard Cutter Jeffrey Palazzo … will proudly carry on their sense of honor, respect and devotion to duty.” 

“On the day we needed them most, our city’s brave first responders ran toward danger without hesitation,” de Blasio said. “Officer Vincent Danz and Firefighter Jeffrey Palazzo lived and died in service to our city and our country, and I join the U.S. Coast Guard, NYPD and FDNY in remembering the sacrifices they made to keep us safe. They were heroes, plain and simple, and their spirit will live on through these vessels as they continue to protect our city and nation from harm.” 

The new cutters are scheduled for delivery starting in 2023. FRCs are the mainstay of the Coast Guard’s coastal patrol fleet, providing multimission capabilities and interagency interoperability.

They feature advanced command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment; over-the-horizon cutter boat deployment to reach vessels of interest; and improved habitability and sea-keeping. They are replacing 1980s-era Island-class 110-foot patrol boats. 

image_pdfimage_print