Ninth Coast Guard District News

Admiral James Steele Gracey, USCG (retired), 17th Commandant of the Coast Guard, passed away on Sunday, April 5, 2020, in Falls Church, Va., at the age of 92.Born in Newton, Mass. in 1927, Adm. Gracey graduated from the United States Coast Guard Academy in 1949. Adm. Gracey was a 1956 graduate of the Harvard Graduate School where he earned a Masters Degree in Business Administration.His career included diverse tours both ashore and afloat, including Commanding Officer, LORAN Station Ocean Cape…

Coast Guard aids to navigation teams throughout the Ninth Coast Guard District has begun restoring the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway aids to navigation system. Slightly more than 11 percent of the operation has been completed so far. Operation Spring Restore involves placing approximately 1,216 navigational aids, including lighted and unlighted buoys and beacons. Roughly half of the aids in the region are taken out of service during the winter months due to decreased vessel traffic and to minimize damage from ice and inclement weather. This is known as Operation Fall Retrieve.

Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Inc. has appointed Admiral Robert J. Papp, Jr., U. S. Coast Guard (Retired), as President of Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Inc., Washington Operations. Admiral Papp served as an Officer in the Coast Guard for nearly 40 years, completing his career as the 24th Commandant of the U. S. Coast Guard from 2010 to 2014. The Coast Guard is the largest component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He was a career cutterman, serving in six cutters, commanding four of them, including the Coast Guard’s square rigged sailing ship, USCG Barque EAGLE. As a flag officer, Admiral Papp served as Commander, Coast Guard Atlantic Area…

U.S. Representatives from U.S. Coast Guard, the city of Sturgeon Bay and the Door County Maritime Museum dedicated the Coast Guard’s last operational 41-foot utility boat, Tuesday, during the Sturgeon Bay Maritime Festival. The dedication ceremony, held at the Door County Maritime Museum, was attended by Thad Birmingham, mayor of Sturgeon Bay; Capt. Amy Cocanour, commander of Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan, and Capt. John Little, chief of staff of the Ninth Coast Guard District, as well as numerous local Coast Guard units.

Coast Guard aids to navigation teams throughout the Ninth Coast Guard District completed restoring the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway aids to navigation system, Friday, following a late start to the operation due to the extended ice season. Operation Spring Restore involves restoring approximately 1,222 navigational aids, including lighted and unlighted buoys and beacons. Roughly half of the aids in the region are taken out of service during the winter months due to decreased vessel traffic and to minimize damage from ice and inclement weather. This is known as Operation Fall Retrieve.

A Change of Command Ceremony is scheduled for U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton at Coast Guard Island, Alameda, Calif., Thursday, at 10:30 a.m. During the ceremony Capt. Andrew M. Sugimoto will relieve Capt. Charles L. Cashin III, as Stratton’s commanding officer. Vice Adm. Paul F. Zukunft, Commander, Pacific Area and Defense Forces West, will preside over the ceremony. Cashin is a native of Chelmsford, Mass., and has served aboard seven cutters, commanding three of them. He is a 1988 graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering.

The Ninth Coast Guard District begins its annual retrieval of the Great Lakes & St. Lawrence Seaway System seasonal aids to navigation before ice forms. In a massive task Operation Fall Retrieve, which includes lighted and unlighted buoys and beacons has begun, with a goal of retrieving 1,282 navigational aids, and should be completed by Dec. 28, 2012. The aids, approximately half in the region, are taken out of service during the winter months due to decreased vessel traffic and to minimize damage from ice and severe weather. The Ninth Coast Guard District’s aids to navigation system facilitates safe and efficient maritime activity in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway region by marking safe passage for domestic, international, commercial and recreational vessel traffic.

A Connecticut-based Coast Guard cutter is scheduled to deploy to the Great Lakes Nov. 29, 2010, to assist in the service's icebreaking mission there throughout the winter months. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Morro Bay, a 140-ft icebreaking tug, will arrive in the Great Lakes region a few weeks after it departs its homeport of New London, Conn. While there, the crew will assist those of other Coast Guard icebreakers during Operations Coal Shovel and Taconite, the largest domestic ice breaking operations in the country.

A Detroit resident has been convicted and sentenced in federal court for making a false distress call to the U.S. Coast Guard, announced United States Attorney Barbara McQuade and Captain Stephen Torpey, Chief of Incident Management for the Ninth Coast Guard District. Andre D. Cheatom, 19 years old, was sentenced to 18 months incarceration, supervised release for three years, a special assessment of $100, and ordered to pay $14,302 in restitution for knowingly and willfully causing the Coast Guard to attempt to save lives and property when no help was needed, in violation of Title 14, U.S. Code, section 88(c). "When members of the Coast Guard respond to a hoax call, they are diverted from people in actual distress," McQuade said.

On Dec. 22, the White House nominated Vice Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr. to succeed Adm. Thad Allen as U.S. Coast Guard Commandant. Papp currently serves as Commander of the Coast Guard Atlantic Area (LANTAREA) and Defense Force East—functioning as the operational commander for all Coast Guard missions within the eastern half of the world. Prior to assuming command of LANTAREA, he served as the Chief of Staff of the Coast Guard in Washington. Papp served as Ninth Coast Guard District Commander from 2004-2006…

Legislation authorizing construction of a new icebreaker for the Great Lakes is being applauded by the Great Lakes shipping community as key to the industry’s future. H.R. 1747, the Great Lakes Icebreaker Replacement Act of 2009, was introduced in the House of Representatives on March 26 by Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-MN). “The Great Lakes are in desperate need of another modern icebreaker,” said Don Cree, President of Great Lakes Maritime Task Force (GLMTF) and President of the Toledo (Ohio) Port Council. “Most of the U.S. Coast Guard’s icebreaking assets are nearing the end of their productive lives. As a result, freighters have been experiencing significant delays and even suffering extensive damage.

The Ninth Coast Guard District will commence Operation Big Tow within the Great Lakes area of responsibility to ensure commercial tugs are compliant with rules, regulations and licensing procedures. The Coast Guard is conducting Operation Big Tow as a continuous safety message to the maritime industry community. The intent of this operation is strictly a marine safety focused operation being conducted to ensure that individuals operating Uninspected Towing Vessel (UTVs) are properly licensed. A Marine Safety Alert message was released in September 2008 by the Assistant Commandant for Marine Safety, Security and Stewardship in Washington, D.C. in response to a recent collision between a cargo vessel and a loaded oil barge in the Mississippi River.

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 U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area, Fifth District and Maritime Defense Zone Atlantic Command will welcomed a new commander during a change-of-command ceremony 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday . Vice Admiral James D. Hull will relieve Vice Admiral Thad W. Allen, who is taking the position of Chief-of-Staff for the Coast Guard. Admiral James M. Loy, Commandant U.S. Coast Guard, and Navy Vice Admiral Albert H. Konetzni, Jr., Deputy and Chief of Staff, U.S. Atlantic Fleet are scheduled to preside. Hull comes to the Atlantic Area Command from his assignment as Commander of the Ninth Coast Guard District.

James H.I Weakley has been selected to be the next President of Lake Carriers' Association. He will succeed George J. Ryan when the latter retires after 20 years of service on January 15, 2003. Weakley will begin serving as President-Elect of LCA on October 1 to ensure an orderly succession. "I am delighted to turn the helm over to Jim Weakley," said Ryan. "I have worked with him for more than 10 years and consider Jim ideally suited to represent U.S.-Flag shipping on the Great Lakes. He possesses both managerial and operational skills that, combined with his knowledge of the U.S. "As both a member of the Coast Guard and then private industry, I have held George Ryan in the highest regard," said Weakley. Weakley's maritime experience is extensive. A 1984 graduate of the U.S.

The U.S. Coast Guard will be celebrating its 213th birthday on Monday, Aug. 4., Coast Guard Day. On the same day in 1790, Congress authorized the building of the first "ten cutters" establishing the Revenue Cutter Service. It was then that the history of the Coast Guard began. Today the Coast Guard has grown to more than 35,000 active-duty personnel and 8,000 reservists. Over 2,000 Coast Guard members serve the needs of the public in the Ninth District. The boundaries of the Ninth Coast Guard District encompass the Great Lakes states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. In an average year on the Great Lakes…

On May 2, 2003, the USCG published two Temporary Final Rules establishing Regulated Navigation Areas (RNAs) in the Federal Register governing the movement (by barge) of Certain Dangerous Cargoes (CDCs) upon the inland rivers of the Eighth Coast Guard District and the Illinois Waterway System in the Ninth Coast Guard District. The rules will apply from April 16, 2003, until October 31, 2003. Any movement of CDCs by barge within the waters specified must be reported to the Inland River Vessel Movement Center (IRVMC) by telephone, fax, or e-mail. The USCG indicates that no Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was published as this notice falls under the exemption to the Administrative Procedures Act contained in the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) of 2002.

The Manitowoc Company, Inc. has launched the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Hollyhock, the fourteenth ship in a series of 16 seagoing buoy tenders being built at Manitowoc’s Marinette Marine subsidiary. Juniper-class vessel is part of a series of contracts that were awarded to Marinette in 1993 and 1998. “HOLLYHOCK and her sister cutters are highly sophisticated vessels that will enable the U.S. Coast Guard to effectively perform a wide variety of missions,” said Terry D. Growcock, Manitowoc’s chairman and chief executive officer. The launch ceremony, which took place on January 25, featured Rear Admiral Ronald F. admiral’s wife and sponsor of the ship, performing the traditional christening ceremony. The U.S. command of Lt.

On September 12th, 2005, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and United States Coast Guard (USCG) began a two-week pilot project to enhance inland marine border security. The pilot project, based on the innovative law enforcement concept, known as “Shiprider,” will involve joint marine patrols on the St. Clair River and surrounding waterways in the Windsor/Detroit region. During the project, USCG officers will join RCMP officers on their vessels, and conversely, RCMP officers will join USCG officers on their vessels. The four 25-foot rigid hull boats taking part in the pilot will patrol and travel in American and Canadian waters in the region.