USCG: Cutter Edisto retires after 30 years of service

The Coast Guard Cutter Edisto (WPB 1313) was decommissioned after more than 30 years of service during a ceremony at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego on April 13.

Edisto is one of the USCG’s 38 remaining 110-foot Island Class patrol boats being replaced by the Sentinel Class Fast Response Cutter, which serve as the coast guard’s primary nearshore patrol asset.

Edisto was built in 1968 by Bollinger Machine Shop and Shipyard in Lockport, Louisiana and placed in commission in January 1987 in New Orleans. The ship transited the Panama Canal and reached its new homeport of Crescent City. In the summer of 1997, Edisto permanently changed its homeport to San Diego.

During the cutter’s time in service, the crew completed more than 1,200 recreational, fisheries, law enforcement and search and rescue operations resulting in 11 major drug busts, more than 200 suspected illegal migrants detained and 350 lives saved.

“The Coast Guard Cutter Edisto and her crew have been vital to our mission of safeguarding the waters of Southern California,” Capt. Joseph Buzzella, the commander of Coast Guard Sector San Diego, said.

“We look forward to the commissioning of our new fast response cutters that will prove even more capable in our mission to safeguard our nation,” Buzzella added.

Edisto’s crew is scheduled to sail to Baltimore where it will be turned in to the Foreign Military Sales program.

Named after United States islands, Island Class Patrol Boats are primarily used for maritime law enforcement, search and rescue, drug and migrant interdiction operations and coastal defense.