Shipbuilder Bollinger Shipyards has delivered the USCGC John Patterson to the U.S. Coast Guard in Key West, Florida.
As informed, the new fast response cutter was handed over on 11 May. This is the 179th vessel Bollinger has delivered to the U.S. Coast Guard over a 35-year period and the 53 rd fast response cutter delivered under the current program.
“We’re incredibly proud to deliver another Fast Response Cutter to be homeported in Boston, the birthplace of the U.S. Coast Guard,” said Bollinger President & CEO Ben Bordelon .
“We’re confident that pound for pound, the quality and capabilities of the FRC platform is unmatched, and that this vessel will outperform its mission requirements and expectations in the challenging conditions where it will operate in the North Atlantic.”
The USCGC John Patterson will be the fourth of six FRCs to be homeported in Sector Boston.
The sector is responsible for coastal safety, security, and environmental protection from the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border southward to Plymouth, Massachusetts out to 200nm offshore.
Sector Boston directs over 1,500 Active Duty, Reserve, and Auxiliary members whose mission is to protect and secure vital infrastructure, rescue mariners in peril at sea, enforce federal law, maintain navigable waterways, and respond to all hazards impacting the maritime transportation system and coastal region.
Each FRC is named for an enlisted Coast Guard hero who distinguished themselves in the line of duty. While attached to an LST during the invasion at Anzio, Italy, Coxswain Patterson volunteered as a member of a boat crew to go the side of a burning LST during a full gale in an effort to rescue personnel trapped below decks.
Despite the fact the blazing ship was pitching and rolling in a dangerous manner and ammunition was exploding he aided in the rescue of a soldier, trapped in a lower compartment and brought him to safety.
To remind, the shipbuilder delivered the 52nd vessel USCGC Maurice Jester in March this year.