Coast Guard cutter heads to Iraq

Midgett joins 6,000-member strike group

A Coast Guard cutter based on Seattle's waterfront is for the first time during the Iraq war being deployed to serve in the Persian Gulf.

The 378-foot-long Midgett, a high-endurance cutter that is part of the service's deepwater fleet, and its crew of 186 will leave Saturday for seven months' duty with the Navy's Expeditionary Strike Group Five, Coast Guard officials confirmed Wednesday.

Other Coast Guard cutters from around the nation have served in the Persian and Arabian gulfs during the Iraq conflict, but not cutters from Seattle. In smaller increments, some Puget Sound Coastguardsmen, notably Port Security Unit 313 from Tacoma, have served in the war zone.

The Midgett will participate in exercises with allied countries and support naval operations, Coast Guard officials said.

"We will provide Expeditionary Strike Group Five with a robust ability to support maritime interdiction and maritime security operations," Capt. Lee. Alexander, Midgett's commanding officer, said in a news release.

In addition to the Midgett, another Pacific Northwest vessel, the Canadian Navy frigate Ottawa, based in Esquimalt, B.C., will join the fleet.

The strike group, which comprises 6,000 sailors and Marines, is led by the amphibious assault flagship USS Boxer, based in San Diego. It includes the dock landing ship USS Comstock, the amphibious transport dock USS Dubuque, the cruiser USS Bunker Hill, and the guided-missile destroyers USS Benfold and USS Howard. The group will conduct exercises in the Western Pacific and steam toward the gulf.

The Midgett's role at home, with the rest of the Coast Guard, has been to guard the nation's coasts, ports and inland waterways. Operating from Seattle, it generally patrols the West Coast, ranging from South America to the Bering Sea.

Read the rest at the Seattle Post Intelligencer

Note: Due to problems with blogger we were unable to post news of deployments and returns for the last 10 days. This post is part of the update from that period.