The crew of the United States Coast Guard cutter Resolute returned home on April 28 to St. Petersburg following a 71-day deployment.
While on deployment, the Resolute crew interdicted two suspected drug smuggling vessels, repatriated 50 Haitian migrants and earned designations for exceptional performance during a three-week training.
The crew departed St. Petersburg, on February 16 and transited to Jacksonville, where they completed Tailored Ship’s Training Availability at Naval Station Mayport. The training tested the crew’s readiness through graded drills that simulated fire and flooding emergencies, medical injuries, and engineering equipment failures. The Resolute crew achieved a 96% overall drill average.
After TSTA, Resolute transited south to the Caribbean in support of the Coast Guard’s Western Hemisphere Strategy. The patrol began with an international engagement called Operation RIPTIDE. The operation combined US Coast Guard, Jamaica Defence Force, and Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard assets to focus on counter-drug operations in the Caribbean, emphasizing the dismantling of trans-national criminal networks, the strengthening of partner nation interoperability, and the advancement of operational coordination.
On March 17, Resolute crewembers, with the assistance of a Customs and Border Protection aircraft crew, interdicted two suspected drug smuggling vessels carrying a combined total of 2,600 lbs of marijuana valued at over $2.3 million dollars wholesale value and detained seven suspected drug smugglers as part of Operation Riptide.
Shortly after the interdiction, the US Embassy Kingston Defense Attaché Office hosted a reception on board the Resolute in Kingston, Jamaica, to celebrate and reinforce military and diplomatic ties between Jamaica and the US.
Following Operation RIPTIDE, Resolute was assigned to Operation SOUTHEAST WATCH, which focuses on the prevention, deterrence, and response to illegal migration in the Windward Passage. On April 10, Resolute crewmembers repatriated 50 Haitian migrants to the Haitian Coast Guard as a result of an interdiction conducted by the Coast Guard Cutter Reliance crew and the Cuban Border Guard. Reliance crewmembers located an overloaded 70-foot sail freighter carrying 127 Haitian migrants approximately 200 miles off the northeast coast of Cuba.
The Coast Guard increased the US and allied presence in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Basin, which are known drug transit zones off Central and South America, as part of its Western Hemisphere Strategy.
Homeported in St. Petersburg, Resolute is a 210-foot Reliance-class cutter and has a crew of 81.