On Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard held a heritage recognition ceremony for the medium endurance cutter USCGC Dependable, which has been performing rescues and busting drug-runners for an astonishing 56 years. The occasion served the aim of a decommissioning, although not in title: Dependable can be laid up in an inactive shipyard standing till her well-earned formal retirement, and her crew will switch to new models with a view to cowl the service’s manning shortfall. 

Dependable was commissioned in 1968 at American Ship Building in Lorain, Ohio and underwent a deep overhaul in 1995-7. Over the course of her lengthy service life, she racked up a string of drug bust successes, together with the seizure of 120 tons of marijuana aboard a freighter in 1978. She was on scene to reply for the Mariel Boatlift in 1980 and the Haitian earthquake of 2010, and took part in a number of migrant-interdiction missions. On her ultimate patrol on the finish of final yr, her crew saved 33 folks aboard a 25-foot boat in seas of as much as 12 ft off the coast of Haiti. 

The Offshore Patrol Cutter procurement program will progressively ship replacements for Dependable and her long-serving sister ships. In the meantime, the Coast Guard has determined to start taking three of them off of front-line responsibility with out ready. The service is brief on personnel, and its leaders need to function cutters with complete crews as an alternative of gapping billets. 

“The Coast Guard cannot maintain the same level of operations with our current shortfall – we cannot do the same with less,” stated Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Heath Jones in a press release final yr. “Conducting our missions is often inherently dangerous, and doing so without enough crew puts our members and the American public at increased risk.”

For Dependable, this alignment coverage means an earlier retirement – however early is relative. Internationally, seagoing ships often retire by 25 and barely outlast their fortieth yr. 56 years is outstanding for a hardworking regulation enforcement vessel like Dependable. 

“This is a fine ship, built long ago by American shipbuilders, tradesmen, and craftsmen,” stated Vice Admiral Kevin Lunday, Commander, Coast Guard Atlantic Area. “But a ship doesn’t change into a Coast Guard cutter as a result of we paint it white and put a racing stripe on the facet. It turns into a cutter once we breathe life into it by crewing it with the best younger ladies and men from throughout these United States.”