laststandonzombieisland

The U.S. Coast Guard is very active around the globe recently, featuring ships that would easily be considered floating museums in any other first or second world fleet, but, rather than having these old girls dockside for tours and ceremonies, the USCG is Sempering that Paratis, so to speak.

Polar Star

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star (WAGB 10) began icebreaking operations in the Southern Ocean in support of Operation Deep Freeze 2026 and marked her 50th year of commissioned service last week by freeing and escorting a 17,000-ton cruise ship trapped in pack ice.

The Australian-owned cruise ship Scenic Eclipse II contacted Polar Star at approximately 11 p.m., local time, Friday, after becoming beset in pack ice roughly eight nautical miles from McMurdo Sound. Polar Star’s crew conducted two close passes to break the vessel free, then escorted it approximately four nautical miles to open water.

“At 50 years old, Polar Star remains the world’s most capable non-nuclear icebreaker,” said Cmdr. Samuel Blase, Polar Star’s executive officer. “That’s a testament to the crews that have maintained it over the decades. With years of service left to give, Polar Star will continue to guide the way in the high latitudes well into the future.”

Commissioned 17 January 1976, Polar Star remains in service with a combination of parts salvaged from her late sister, Polar Sea, out of service since 2010, but still afloat in mothball status in Suisun Bay, and yearly lengthy yard periods (she just finished a 175-day SLEP at Mare Island Dry Dock last summer, a yard which sadly closed on Dec. 31 2025).

She won’t be retired until a new heavy icebreaker arrives in USCG red as part of the Polar Security Cutter program in 2030 (maybe).

She is on her 29th deployment to Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze, leaving her Seattle homeport in November, and is slated to return home later this year.

Vigilant

The 210-foot Reliance-class medium endurance cutter USCGC Vigilant (WMEC 617) returned to her Cape Canaveral homeport last Friday after a 33-day patrol in the Caribbean Sea supporting Operations Pacific Viper (including transits through the Panama Canal) and Southern Spear.

Notably, she returned to the U.S. with an impounded “Shadow Fleet” tanker, with the assistance of a Navy MH-60S from the “Tridents” of HSC-9.

During the patrol, Vigilant escorted a motor tanker, which was seized by a U.S. Coast Guard tactical boarding team with support from the Department of War, for operating as a vessel without nationality in the Caribbean Sea. Vigilant’s crew coordinated with naval and law enforcement partners to transfer personnel and provisions to the tanker. A law enforcement team from Vigilant boarded the vessel to provide security during the 600-nautical-mile transit to the United States.

Valiant was commissioned in 1964 (not a misprint) and had her mid-life refit in 1989-90– some 36 years ago at this point.

Talk about golden years.

Hickory

The USCGC Hickory (WLB 212), a 225-foot Juniper-class seagoing buoy tender, arrived at her new homeport in Guam on 14 January, following a more than 13,000-mile transit over 71 days from the U.S. Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore via the Panama Canal.

Hickory, commissioned in 2003, spent the first half of her career as “The Kenai Keeper” and “Bull of the North” while stationed in Alaska and has recently capped an extensive and lengthy modernization at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore that will steel her for the next 20 years.

Hickory is the most forward-deployed Juniper in the Pacific, joining sisters USCGC Juniper (WLB 201) and Hollyhock (WLB 214), both homeported in Honolulu. In addition to tending hundreds of aids to navigation, WLBs in the region regularly complete 40-50-day Operation Blue Pacific patrols of Oceana with Allied ship riders aboard, important hearts-and-minds stuff.

While not romantic, these large WLBs have often clocked in on exercises and operations supporting SOCOM, the Marines, and the gray-hulled fleet. They have also zipped through the Northwest Passage and conducted long-ranging LE patrols when needed.

If things go squirrely, say with non-nation actors, pirates, or other rogues in those areas that a small group of pipe hitters could fix and naval assets are not available, some may see NG SF ODAs or the Coast Guard’s own MSST units carried from buoy tenders as a low-tech option. They have room for an Mk 38 (which isn’t installed) and carry a few .50 cals and small arms as well.