USCGC Legare returns home following 63-day Caribbean Sea patrol

USCGC Legare’s (WMEC 912) crew interdicts an unsafe vessel with 396 migrants in transit to Florida in the Atlantic Ocean, Jan. 21, 2023. The Legare’s crew patrolled the Coast Guard’s Seventh District area of operations to conduct maritime safety and security missions. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Trever R. Hammack)

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Feb. 17, 2023

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The crew of the USCGC Legare (WMEC 912) returned to their homeport in Portsmouth, Friday, following a 63-day deployment in the Florida Straits and Caribbean Sea.

Legare deployed in support of Homeland Security Task Force – Southeast and Operation Vigilant Sentry to patrol the Coast Guard’s Seventh District area of operations. While underway, Legare’s crew conducted maritime safety and security missions while working with additional Coast Guard cutters and air assets to detect, deter and intercept unsafe and illegal migrant ventures bound for the United States.

During the patrol, Legare’s crew cared for 1,309 migrants interdicted at sea and rescued people from 23 different unseaworthy vessels. Notably, Legare’s crew located and interdicted 396 migrants on a single, overcrowded 50-foot vessel.

Legare’s patrol efforts highlight the Coast Guard’s critical missions of maintaining safety of life at sea and preventing the potential for loss of life by deterring migrants from taking to the sea in dangerously overcrowded vessels in an attempt to enter the United States through non-legal channels.

“The migrant interdiction mission can be emotionally draining,” said Cmdr. Jeremy Greenwood, Legare’s commanding officer. “Legare’s success was the direct result of the patient determination of the crew. Being deployed during the holidays is never easy, but this crew will proudly return knowing they served during a unique part of our nation’s history and saved hundreds of lives.”  

Legare is a 270-foot, Famous-class medium endurance cutter with a crew of 108. The cutter’s primary missions are counter drug operations, migrant interdiction, enforcement of federal fishery laws and search and rescue in support of U.S. Coast Guard operations throughout the Western Hemisphere.