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Coast Guard cutter Hickory comes home to Homer

USCG District 17

Release Date: 6/16/2003

KODIAK, Alaska - The newest Coast Guard cutter in Alaska arrives at its homeport in Homer late June after sailing more than 12,000 miles around the North America continent.

The 225-foot buoy tender Hickory and crew will pull into the Pioneer Dock in Homer for the first time mid-morning June 25. Family and friends are invited and encouraged to greet the crew when they arrive. The community is also invited to the commissioning ceremony pier side July 3 at 1 p.m. This time-honored tradition is a ceremony formally bringing the new ship and its crew into service.

The Hickory replaces the cutter Sedge, which was decommissioned Nov. 15, 2002, and sold to Nigeria for service in that country's naval forces, and is the first buoy tender delivered to the Department of Homeland Security.

The Hickory contains state-of-the-art technology, two-, four-, and six-person staterooms, extra-wide passageways and is 45 feet longer than and has twice the displacement of the World War II-era, 180-foot buoy tenders. The new cutter requires about 10 fewer personnel and more technology to assist with the task of keeping aids to navigation working properly.

Lt. Cmdr. Charles Cashin, the commanding officer, and the 45 crewmembers accepted the ship March 6, sailed the ship through the Great Lakes, along the East Coast, through the Panama Canal, up the West Coast to arrive in Homer June 25. Once the ship arrives in Homer, the crew will begin preparing the ship for the commissioning ceremony July 3 and then for its upcoming duties of search and rescue, homeland security, maintaining aids to navigation and maritime law enforcement in Cook Inlet, along the Kenai Peninsula and Gulf of Alaska.

The Hickory is the last 225-foot buoy tender to be home ported in Alaska. The Hickory and its sister ship SPAR, in Kodiak, will share responsibility for aids to navigation once cared for by the recently decommissioned cutter Firebush.