Coast Guard Cutter Walnut completes Iraqi aid mission
USCG Release
Release Date: 06 May 2003
NORTH ARABIAN GULF - Coast Guard cutter Walnut, a 225-foot buoy tender homeported in Honolulu, today completed its 20-day humanitarian mission of properly marking the navigational channel of the Khawr Abd Allah waterway leading from the North Arabian Gulf to Iraq's critical port of Umm Qasr.
The Walnut completely replaced 30 buoys and repaired an additional five along the 41-mile waterway, vastly improving the navigational safety of the waterway for humanitarian aid sailing to the port and providing a critical step towards the economic recovery of the people of Iraq.
The majority of the equipment used in the navigational improvements was located in a warehouse in Umm Qasr and was inspected and upgraded to ensure that the buoys matched as closely as possible to the charted channel. The Walnut was originally deployed to the North Arabian Gulf with an oil spill recovery system in the event the regime of Saddam Hussein committed any acts of environmental terrorism. When those threats did not materialize the cutter conducted maritime interdiction operations enforcing U.N. Security Council resolutions, participated in the search for two downed United Kingdom helicopters, and patrolled and provided assistance to captured Iraqi offshore oil terminals.
Coast Guard Port Security Units from San Pedro, Calif., and Tacoma, Wash., along with East Coast-based 110-foot patrol boats, remain in the region to provide security in the port of Umm Qasr and along the Iraqi coast. The 378-foot cutter Boutwell, homeported in Alameda, Calif., continues to conduct maritime interdiction operations in the North Arabian Gulf.
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