US Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma Returns from Patrol

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma returned Monday to its homeport of Kittery, Maine after a 42-day patrol conducting training and operations in the Windward Passage off the northern coast of Haiti.

Tahoma’s crew spent the first two weeks of the patrol in Little Creek, Va., conducting a Limited Training Team Availability (TRAV). TRAV is designed to prepare the ship’s crew for sea, and a wide range of mission-critical operations were assessed during this period. The crew enhanced their proficiency in seamanship, damage control, engineering and medical casualty response throughout the training. They also conducted a fueling-at-sea evolution with USNS John Lenthall and a gunnery exercise with its .50-caliber machine guns.

At the completion of the Training Availability, the 270-foot Tahoma deployed to the Windward Passage to conduct migrant interdiction and counterdrug operations. Tahoma’s crew aggressively patrolled the operational area to detect and deter illegal migration while conducting at sea boardings of vessels suspected of trafficking illegal contraband. While deployed, Tahoma worked closely with its law enforcement partners in the Bahamas, and Coast Guard aviation assets and Drug Enforcement Agency agents from Operation Bahamas, Turks and Caicos.

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Press Release, August 13, 2013; Image: USCG