Cutter Rush News

The U.S. Coast Guard decommissioned and transferred the Cutter Rush to the Bangladesh Navy as the BNS Somudra Avijan during an official signing ceremony on Coast Guard Island in Alameda Wednesday afternoon. A 20-member team from the Bangladesh Navy, led by prospective commanding officer Capt. Mohammad Waseem Maqsood, arrived in Alameda in March to begin preparations to receive the Rush. Seventy additional crewmembers of the Bangladesh Navy are scheduled to arrive May 20. Until the BNS Somudra Avijan departs from Alameda later this year…

Adm. Paul F. Zukunft, the 25th commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard has a full plate. Driving sexual assault out of the Coast Guard; Preparing the fleet for operations through the year 2061; Coordinating intel and assets to stem the flow of illegal drugs ... they are all on the short list. From his Washington, DC, HQ he shares his vision and mission with Maritime Reporter. You are almost a year in this position as the Commandant of the United States Coast Guard. Looking back, critique year one.

The U.S. Coast Guard held a decommissioning ceremony at Base Honolulu Tuesday for Coast Guard Cutter Rush, which will be sold to the Bangladesh Navy and replaced by Coast Guard Cutter Sherman. The ceremony honored 45 years of Rush’s service to the Coast Guard. Vice Adm. Charles W. Ray, Coast Guard Pacific Area commander, presided over the event. Since the cutter was launched in 1968, it has served the U.S. in a variety of roles including defense operations during the Vietnam War…

A man is safe after being rescued from a disabled boat approximately 46 miles southwest of Kahoolawe, Maui, Saturday. At 10:15 a.m., watchstanders at the Coast Guard Sector Honolulu command center received notification from a friend of the vessel’s operator reporting that the 19-foot boat was disabled. The mariner contacted his friend using a cell phone. An approximate position was determined using information form the cell phone call. An HC-130 Hercules airplane crew and the 378-foot Coast Guard Cutter Rush were diverted to search. An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew launched from Air Station Barbers Point and a 45-foot Response-Boat Medium crew launched from Station Maui. The disabled boat was spotted at 7:06 p.m. when the Hercules aircrew noticed the mariner waving a flashlight.

The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Rush returned to its homeport following a successful 72-day deployment in the Central and Western Pacific, Monday. Rush departed in July 2014 and spent the last two months conducting operations in the Central and Western Pacific. During the deployment, Rush’s crew coordinated with multiple countries and partner agencies to conduct fisheries boardings in support of the Coast Guard’s living marine resources mission. Rush also participated in international engagement activities in American Samoa, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia. Rush enforced U.S. foreign fishing laws utilizing embarked shipriders from Tonga, Tuvalu, and Nauru. Rush also enforced Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission regulations.

One arrested illegal driftnet  fishing boat already dismantled for scrap, another to follow soon. Some two years ago the USCG cutter Rush intercepted the Da Cheng driftnetting on the high seas near Japan, a practice banned by U.N. moratorium because of its devastating effects on marine ecosystems. The Rush escorted the vessel in to the Port of Unalaska, Alaska, and turned over the vessel to Chinese law enforcement after discovering that all the crewmembers aboard the unflagged vessel were Chinese.

The 378-ft Coast Guard Cutter Rush, homeported in Honolulu, Hawaii, arrives in Shanghai, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009. The crew of the Rush is in China to engage in maritime partnerships and cultural exchanges. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Christopher Evanson)

A change of command and retirement ceremony is scheduled for the Coast Guard Atlantic Area commander Friday at 10 a.m. at Nauticus, the National Maritime Center, in Norfolk, Va. Coast Guard Commandant Thomas H. Collins will preside over the ceremony where Vice Adm. Vivien S. Crea, will assume responsibilities from Vice Adm. James D. Hull as the Coast Guard Atlantic Area commander. Hull, the Atlantic Area commander for the past two years, will retire following the change of command after 39 years of service. Hull was commissioned an Ensign at the Coast Guard Academy, New London, Conn., in 1969. Between 1969 and 1971, Hull was aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Rush in Vietnam. During combat, crewmembers from the Rush sank two enemy trawlers and prevented a U.S. Army unit from being over-run.

The three-member Coast Guard boarding team stepped from the darkened bowels of the ship into the sunlight of the vessel’s aft deck. They didn’t stand a chance. One of the rogue ship’s crewmen stood 15 ft. in front of the Coast Guard boarding team with a loaded weapon behind his back, refusing to place it on the deck as the team was ordering. The Coast Guard team raised their weapons and trained their sights on the obstinate crewman’s center mass, just as they’d been trained. The boarding officer in charge of the boarding yelled, “Drop the weapon! Do it NOW!” But the crewman refused to comply. All eyes were on the armed crewman, and that was the team’s fatal mistake. One deck above them, another of the rogue ship’s crew took position against a railing.

David G. Williams, a Chief Warrant Officer in the U.S. Coast Guard and the Main Propulsion Assistant for the Coast Guard Cutter RUSH, was indicted by a federal grand jury for obstructing the investigation into his authorization of the direct overboard discharge of bilge wastes through the deep sink into the Honolulu Harbor, announced Ronald J. Tenpas, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment & Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawaii Edward H. Kubo Jr. Williams was charged with two counts: one count of obstruction of justice and one count of making a false statement. As the Main Propulsion Assistant…

Rescuers from the U.S. Coast Guard and Alaska Air National Guard saved 23 crew members from an Asian cargo ship taking on water south of the Aleutian Islands, officials said. "People are out of harm's way, they are rescued and they are safe,'' said Alaska National Guard spokesman Maj. Mike Haller late Monday. All 23 crew members were hoisted into two National Guard Pave Hawk helicopters and a Coast Guard helicopter and taken to Adak Island in the Aleutians. The rescue was conducted in very challenging weather, said Master Sgt. Sal Provenzano with the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center. A nearby merchant marine vessel was standing by to take any crew member who couldn't fit on the three helicopters…

The Honolulu-based U.S. Coast Guard cutter Rush arrived in east China's coastal city of Qingdao on Sunday afternoon, kicking off a five-day visit at the invitation of China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS). Rush is the first major Coast Guard vessel to visit China since World War II, according to Capt. Dana Ware, commanding officer of Rush. The ship and its crew were welcomed by Chinese counterparts and local people upon its arrival at the Qingdao Pier. Major General Chen Weiming of the MPS Border Control Department and Vice Admiral Charles D. Wurster of the U.S. Coast Guard addressed the welcoming ceremony. During Rush's stay in Qingdao…