U.S. Attorney General To Christen Coast Guard Cutter

Marinette Marine Corporation will launch the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter SPAR August 12. The SPAR is the sixth ship in a series of sixteen Seagoing Buoy Tenders, which are being built by Marinette Marine Corp.

The vessel will be christened by The Honorable Janet Reno, U.S. Attorney General, who will also serve as the cutter's sponsor. The Honorable Herbert Kohl, (D-WI), U.S. Senate, and Vice Admiral Timothy Josiah, Chief of Staff, U.S. Coast Guard will also be present at the christening. The USCG will honor its past by naming this cutter, SPAR, in testimony to the 11,000 American women who became SPARs and served in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II.

Measuring 225-ft. (68.5 m), the seagoing buoy tender will serve in Kodiak, Alaska under the command of LCDR Joanna Nunan. It will have a complement of six officers and thirty-four enlisted personnel. SPAR will join her sister cutters, now operating in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, which form a new fleet of technically advanced and highly capable buoy tenders. Equipped to perform search and rescue, law enforcement, pollution response and domestic icebreaking missions as well as servicing aids to navigation.