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Category Archives: USCG

Costa Rica to pick up a couple of Islands

Posted on July 1, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland 2 comments

Island-class Coast Guard Cutter Grand Isle was decommissioned after 24 years of service in 2015, and her or one of her sisters may soon go to live a new life in Central America as the last two classes of USCG patrol boats have in recent decades

The U.S. government will donate two surplus Island-class cutter patrol boats with a total value of $18.9 million to the Costa Rica Coast Guard (Guarda Costas).

U.S. Assistant Secretary William Brownfield of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs announced the donation following a meeting with President Luis Guillermo Solís at Casa Presidencial last Wednesday.

In modern times the Costa Rican Coast Guard, established as a branch of the Guardia Civil in 1949, had a single sea-going patrol boat on each coast (Caribbean and Pacific) along with some smaller shallow water vessels with outboard motors.

In 1989 they picked up their most advanced ship, the former 95-foot patrol boat USCGC Cape Henlopen (WPB-95328) which served as Astronauta Franklin Chang Diaz (SP 951) until 2001 and was later sunk as a reef.

Diaz was augmented in 1991 by a surplus USCG Point-class cutter, the 82-foot Colonel Alfonso Monje (SP 82-1) (ex-USCGC Point Hope (WPB-82302)) and in 2001 by SNGC Juan Rafael Mora (SP 82-2) (ex-USCGC Point Chico (WPB-82339)).

Monje and Mora Points in Costa Rica service. You can almost close your eyes and smell the Mekong…

So presumably the new-to-them 110-foot cutters will replace the significantly smaller and now nearly 60~ year-old Monje and Mora. These boats are vastly different with the Islands carrying a Mk.38 25mm chain gun and 2-4 M2 .50 cals while the former “Points” were transferred without any mounted weapons and have subsequently been fitted with twin M60s forward.

Further, the 82’s have 8-10 man crews while the 110’s go twice that.

The English-language Costa Rican media outlet Tico Times reports some 50 CRCG members will soon be sent to the U.S. to train on their new ships.

The 110-foot ships will be the largest in the Costa Rican Coast Guard fleet when they arrive in 2017.

Better than them going to Sea Shepherd.

Coast Guard patches up broke down icebreaker with surfboard repair kit

Posted on June 30, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland 2 comments

The nation who at one time had the world’s largest and best-equipped icebreaker fleet has for years been suffering in that department. So much so that the only true heavy breakers we have under U.S. flag, the 399-foot USCGC Polar Star and Polar Sea, are among the oldest ships in the Coast Guard (who is known for having “veteran” platforms) and are uber-cranky.

The 399-foot Polar Star. Top of the line in icebreakers 1977-2010. However, note no visable weapons. For scientific missions these are not needed. However for soverignty missions, are a must.

The 399-foot Polar Star. Top of the line in icebreakers in 1977

The crew of the recently returned to duty cutter Polar Star responded to four general emergencies during their most recent deployment to Antarctica. A “general emergency” is a situation in which the crew and the cutter are in serious danger if the not remedied quickly. The crew experienced three fires and one major lube oil leak, which can quickly ignite into fire.

One of which required an out-of-the-box fix.

Petty Officer 1st Class Kevin Oakes, an electrician’s mate aboard the Polar Star, used a surfboard repair kit to fix one of the cutter’s generators after the system shorted out and began smoking. The crew had lost power to one of their propellers en route to Antarctica leaving them with reduced power Dec. 13. The crew could not get specially designed replacement parts for the 40-year-old generator in time for the crew to execute their mission to Antarctica; however, with a little online research and brainstorming, Oakes used one of his shipmate’s surfboard repair kits to fabricate a new replacement part allowing the Polar Star’s crew to continue their mission.

More here

I bring not the rays of the sun, but the thunderbolts from Jupiter

Posted on June 24, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

The USCG just put out this job video propaganda on their Gunners Mates rate, which actually isn’t that bad.

Coast Guard GMs work with everything from pistols, rifles and machine guns, to 76mm weapons systems. As a GM, they handle all weapons, ammunition, and pyrotechnics. Their A school runs 10 weeks at TRACEN Yorktown followed by equipment specific C schools that can take up to 14 weeks.

Unlike the Navy, the Coasties have no GMM or Torpedomen rates, by default making all USCG rates GMGs.

Their motto?

Nonsolis radios sediouis fulmina mitto (I bring not the rays of the sun, but the thunderbolts from Jupiter)

If you are in the Beltway area on Friday, look up

Posted on June 16, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

Coast Guard air stations from North Carolina, New Jersey, Alabama and the District of Columbia will provide a nine aircraft sortie consisting of at least one of every aircraft type flown by the service to continue its celebration of its aviation centennial, and as such many will have historical paint schemes.

The event will occur at noon on the 17th and Flyover viewing points will include: Morgan Boulevard Metro Station; Anacostia Park; 11th Street Bridge; Nationals Park; Fort McNair; Hains Point/East Potomac Park; Jefferson Memorial; Gravelly Point Park; Pentagon; Arlington, Virginia; and Falls Church, Virginia.

How about those waves?

Posted on June 10, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

Welcome Tarlac, an instant island for the South China Sea

Posted on May 24, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

The Philippines Navy’s terms her a “Strategic Sealift Vessel”

The Phillipines Navy’s newst (and actually new construction!) vessel docked at Pier 13 of the Manila South Harbor last week, BRP Tarlac (LD-601), built by PT PAL (Persero) in Indonesia. She is based on Indonesia’s Makassar-class LPDs which in turn are an offshoot of the successful South Korean-designed Tanjung Dalpele.

The new 11,500-ton vessel has a complement of 121 officers and enlisted personnel. She can carry 500 troops, two rigid-hull inflatable boats, two LCUs and three helicopters. Tarlac is slow (16 knots) but can remain at sea for a month and travel almost 10,000nm. She is one of the most powerfully armed ships in the fleet, with a 76mm OTO, twin 25mm chain guns, and numerous .50 cals.

The well dock is snug, but can fit two LCUs…

The Philippines is looking to get at least four of these LPDs and earlier this month took possession of the former U.S. Navy’s USNS Melville (T-AGOR-14) which is now the research vessel BRP Gregorio Velasquez (AGR-702), a first for the country.

Previous to that they have acquired three retired 50~ year old Hamilton-class Coast Guard Cutters: the Philippine Navy flagship BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF-15)— which started life as the USCGC Hamilton (WHEC-715)— BRP Ramon Alcaraz (ex-Dallas) and the as yet to be renamed ex-Boutwell.

BRP Ramon Alcaraz ( PF16 ), formerly the USCGC Dallas, from above. Note the sparse armarment

BRP Ramon Alcaraz ( PF16 ), formerly the USCGC Dallas, from above. Note the sparse armament (big up)

Two Gregorio del Pilar-class frigates of the Philippine Navy during naval exercises with the US Navy [3000 x 1970]

Two Gregorio del Pilar-class frigates of the Philippine Navy during naval exercises with the US Navy. These are the former cutters Hamilton and Dallas. They look unusual in haze gray with big PI naval ensigns, but they do seem to be holding a zig-zag well. [3000 x 1970]

The budget LPDs are part of an ambitious naval plan that includes:

6 frigates for anti-air warfare, (Perhaps these will be the Hamiltons, though they need to be up-armed if so)
12 corvettes for anti-submarine warfare,
18 offshore patrol vessels,
3 submarines,
3 anti-mine vessels,
18 LCUs,
3 logistics ships,
12 coastal interdiction patrol boats,
30 patrol gunboats,
42 multi-purpose assault craft (that can be equipped with torpedoes and missiles).
8 amphibious maritime patrol aircraft,
18 naval helicopters, (the navy recently acquired 3 AgustaWestland AW109E Powers)
8 multi-purpose helicopters

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Ferdinand Petrie

Posted on May 22, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sundays (when I feel like working), I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, photographers and the like that produced them.

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Ferdinand Petrie

Born in Hackensack, New Jersey in 1925, Ferdinand Ralph Petrie completed his art training at thet Parsons School of Design and The Famous Artist School of Illustration. He also studied painting with Frank Reilly at The Art Students League in New York.

Following World War II service, he worked for 20 years in advertising agencies and studios in New York City, then began painting full time, specializing in pencil and watercolors.

In 1972, he opened his own studio in Rockport, Massachusetts and created a number of contemporary works.

#3 High Street

The Cove

It was during this time that he began a series of studies for the Navy and Coast Guard over more than a decade which inspire and endure.

USCG Icebreaker by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 87136). The Coast Guard medium harbor tug SNOHOMISH (WYTM-98) on a search and rescue mission in floating ice off Rockland, MA. Snohomish was a 110-foot armed tug commissioned 24 January 1944 and served in the Boston Naval District in WWII. Peacetime service saw everything from busting poachers and drug runners to saving Gotham from her own trash during the garbage collection strike in 1980. Decommissioned 1986, she endured as a yacht and commercial vessel for another 20 years, dropping off the radar in 2005.

Drug Patrol Duty by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 87942). A Coast Guardsman mans an M60 machine gun on board a cutter out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, keeping a suspected drug runner under close observation.

Snohomish by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 88015). The CGC SNOHOMISH looms in the background as crew members of a 44- foot patrol boat wave in passing.

Learning the Art of Tying Knots by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 90405). Two young “Coasties” practice the skill of tying knots.

Ready for Patrol Duty by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 88329). MK2 Rick Cremean’s equipment for patrol duty consists of an M-16, a 45, life jacket, flashlight and handcuffs at Coast Guard Station, Gloucester, Mass.

Getting Aboard from USCGC Ocracoke by Ferdinand Petrie (ID # 90233). A law enforcement team from the Cutter Ocracoke boards a suspected drug-runner's vessel in the Caribbean.

USCGC Ocracoke (WPB-1307) by Ferdinand Petrie (ID # 90233). A law enforcement team from the Cutter Ocracoke boards a suspected drug-runner’s vessel, the Dealer’s Choice in the Caribbean. Ocracoke has chalked up a number of big busts on her yearly Florida-Gitmo deployments including3,771 pounds (1.9 tons) aboard the La Toto off the northwest coast of St. Croix in 1987

Search and Rescue on the Great Lakes by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 89510). The Coast Guard Icebreaker SNOHOMISH prepares to cast off a small boat for a search and rescue mission an HH3F “Pelican” helicopter stands by to assist.

Ladies in Waiting by Ferdinand Petrie. Two small boats tied up at pier awaiting duty off Gloucester, Mass.

Omiaria boarded by Ferdinand Petrie (ID # 90234)

Getting Aboard from USCGC Ocracoke by Ferdinand Petrie. A law enforcement team from the Cutter Ocracoke boards a suspected drug-runner’s vessel, the Omiaria , in the Caribbean. A 110-foot Island-class patrol cutter, she was commissioned in 1986 and has spent her career based out of Portland, Maine, earning a fair bit of notoriety for rescuing the Canadian sailing ship Liana’s Ransom. She is still on active duty.

Ferdinand Petrie died in 2007 but he has several books penned in the 1990s in circulation on the subject of art with a few still in publication. His art is in the Smithsonian, the Coast Guard Museum in New London, and in the Navy Art Collection.

Thank you for your work, sir.

Colombia’s finest (unterseeboots)

Posted on May 20, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

HI Sutton, who has been kinda enough to mirror some of our posts from LSOZI before at his excellent Covert Shores blog (and I do recommend going over there and checking it out regularly) penned a piece for Foreign Brief on the evolution of Narco Subs, which included this dope (no pun intended) info graphic (click to very much big up!)

2400-x1152

From the article:

2016 looks set to be a bumper year for narco-sub incidents.

Just last month, Colombian security forces discovered a 15-metre narco-sub in the jungle near the Pacific coast. A few weeks earlier, the U.S. Coast Guard published footage of a narco-sub intercepted off the Panamanian coast with 5.5 tonnes of cocaine on board, valued at $200 million. In March, an abandoned narco-sub was found stranded on a reef off the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, its load of narcotics already unloaded by drug smugglers.

More here.

Plucking out a big diesel

Posted on April 22, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Coast Guard Section Southwestern New England recently shared these images of an engine haul-out from the 110-foot Island-class patrol boat, USCGC Sanibel (WPB 1312). Stationed at Woods Hole, MA, Sanibel is an early “A” series 110 that was equipped with two Paxman-Valenta 16CM diesels along with two 99 KW Caterpillar 3304T diesel generators capable of parallel operation. The big engines are hauled out on occasion for rework and to check the engine mounts and refit.

Removal of the softpatch

And away we go…

Engine up

And out…

Engine room post removal

MK3 from Sector SENE inspecting the engine mounts

Built at Bollinger, Sanibel was commissioned in 1987, funded under a DoD Augmentation Appropriation, and has spent most of her career fighting with that cruel mistress, the North Atlantic, enforcing laws, conducting Homeland Security and defense missions and performing rescues. Among her other service, on 22 July 1999, Sanibel served as land-to-ship transport for members of the Kennedy and Bessette families for burial-at-sea services for John F. Kennedy, Jr.

USCGC SANIBEL (WPB 1312) 2014,. USCG Photo

Designed for a 20-year service life, Sanibel and the other earlier “off-the-shelf” 110s were given a SHIPALT that installed intermediate frames in-between her yard original ones and she will continue to serve well into her 30s.

Under Deepwater, all of the 110s were supposed to be replaced by 2009. But anyway…

I yam what I yam

Posted on April 8, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Here we see the Mk 75 Oto Melera Super Rapid Mount on the Boston-based USCGC Spencer (WMEC-905). These Italian-designed 76mm/62cal guns were made under license in the U.S. starting in 1978 by FMC Naval Systems Division and went on to arm the 51 Perry-class frigates and half-dozen Pegasus-class PHMs of the Navy as well as the 25 Medium (270′) and High (378′, replacing 5″ Mk38 guns) Endurance cutters of the Coast Guard.

76mm popeye gun on USCGC SPENCER (WMEC-905

Spencer ran her mount with Popeye in the 1990s…

As you will note, the mount carries a great Popeye logo, complete with 76mm shells and dope leaf tattoos.

You should well remember that ‘Pop was a Coastie from way back in the rumrunner days…

However, in recent years, Spencer has scrubbed the Spinach-eating icon from their forward mount, and it is more ship-shape today.

BTW, what is up with those wonky hull numbers? Deck Division! Come on…

Now, the Coast Guard is the lantern holder for the Mk 75 platform, with the USN formally ditching the Perrys and PHMs long ago.

Currently the USCG has less than 20~ platforms still carrying the now-legacy Carter-era guns, which are kept running by BAE Systems. Those will eventually be retired as the new Offshore Patrol Cutter program comes online in the next decade. Likely replaced by the current standard Mk 110 57mm Bofors popgun.

However, you can be sure there will be GMG shenanigans with these 76mm’s until that day.

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laststandonzombieisland

Weapons, Wars, Preparation and Security from a recovering gun nut turned bad writer

Category Archives: USCG

Costa Rica to pick up a couple of Islands

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Coast Guard patches up broke down icebreaker with surfboard repair kit

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I bring not the rays of the sun, but the thunderbolts from Jupiter

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If you are in the Beltway area on Friday, look up

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How about those waves?

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Welcome Tarlac, an instant island for the South China Sea

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Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Ferdinand Petrie

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Colombia’s finest (unterseeboots)

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Plucking out a big diesel

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I yam what I yam

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Category Archives: USCG

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