Fast response cutter Joseph Doyle (WPC-1133) entered US Coast Guard service in a Saturday ceremony at US Coast Guard Sector San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The Joseph Doyle is the thirty-third Fast Response Cutter FRC to be commissioned in the Coast Guard and the seventh to be assigned to Sector San Juan and homeported in Puerto Rico.
“Each fast response cutter represents an extraordinary resource which increases our search and rescue and other multi-mission capabilities in our area of responsibility,” said Captain Eric King, Commander of the Coast Guard Sector San Juan. “The Joseph Doyle will contribute to strengthening the coastal security of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands as the nation’s most southern maritime border.”
“It is an absolute honor to be the commanding officer of the Coast Guard’s 33rd FRC, but more importantly the 7th FRC in Puerto Rico,” said Lt. Catherine Gillen. “My crew and I look forward to serving the people of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands and keeping these beautiful islands safe.”
The Sentinel-class FRCs are designed to conduct maritime drug interdiction, alien migrant interdiction, search and rescue, national defense, homeland security, living marine resource protection and other Coast Guard missions.
The FRC is part of the Coast Guard’s layered approach to maritime security that includes the national security cutter and the offshore patrol cutter. The FRC’s are 154-feet long with a beam of 25 feet and they can transit at a maximum sustained speed of 28 knots. They are armed with a stabilized 25mm machine-gun mount and four .50-caliber machine guns.
Each FRC is named for a Coast Guard hero who distinguished him or herself in the line of duty. The namesake of today’s commissioned cutter is Coast Guard hero Captain Joseph O. Doyle.