US Coast Guard to commission fast response cutter Rollin Fritch

The U.S. Coast Guard is set to commission its newest fast response cutter USCG Rollin Fritch on November 19.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the ceremony will be held at Coast Guard Training Center Cape May with Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul F. Zukunft presiding over the ceremony.

The Rollin Fritch crew will be homeported in Cape May and will operate off the coast from New Jersey through North Carolina.

Rollin Fritch is the 18th Fast Response Cutter and is named after Coast Guard Seaman 1st Class Rollin A. Fritch. During a kamikaze attack off of Luzon in the Philippine Islands, Fritch manned his gun while Japanese airplanes attacked the ship.

The 153-foot fast response cutter will perform missions such as law enforcement, search and rescue, port security, fishery patrols, drug and illegal migrant enforcement.