After 73 days on patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Legare returned to Virginia last week, concluding a mission that took it from oil discharge response to interdictions of unlawful migrant vessels.
In ranging from the Windward Passage to the South Florida Straits, the vessel covered more than 12,000 nautical miles in support of Operation Vigilant Sentry and the Southeast Homeland Security Task Force. It worked alongside other Coast Guard cutters in the process, patrolling the Gulf of Mexico while focusing on both maritime safety and securing maritime borders. Along the way, it intercepted an irregular, unlawful, overloaded vessel carrying 20 migrants off the coast of Haiti and helped respond to an oil discharge approximately 20 miles northeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
“I am very proud of the crew of Legare and our ability to come together and ensure we do our part in maintaining the safety of life at sea and securing our nation’s maritime borders,” Cmdr. Jeremy Greenwood, Legare’s commanding officer, said. “This mission is never easy, but we understand the importance of deterring unlawful migration incidents that involve attempting dangerous journeys on often overloaded and unseaworthy vessels. We reiterate the plea to those attempting these transits to the United States to seek safe, lawful alternatives.”
Primarily, the 270 ft. Legare focuses on counter-drug operations, migrant interdiction, search and rescue and enforcement of federal fishery laws. As in the case of those migrants from Haiti, it searches for those attempting to enter U.S. shores without authorization and to remove them to their country of origin or departure, depending.