I am a member of the Coast Guard Art Program, COGAP, and was recently asked if I’d like to be deployed for 4 days on their newest National Security cutter, the USCGC Stratton, of course I said yes. My assignment is to photograph the crew in their duties as well as images inside and out of the ship for future paintings to be submitted to the Coast Guard Art Program. I will board the ship in December and spend the next 4 days collecting reference photos for future paintings of this ship and crew.
USCGC Stratton under construction in Pascagoula, Mississippi
The Stratton is the third of four mega high tech 418-foot Legend Class cutters to replace the dependable but aging 378-foot Hamilton Class cutters built in the 1960’s. The National Security cutters perform alien migrant interdiction operations, fisheries protection, search and rescue, counter-narcotics and homeland security missions. On it’s first patrol out the sistership USCGC Waesche interdicted 2 vessels within a 48-hour period containing over 25 million in cocaine being smuggled to the US. The new National Security Cutters have the range to patrol from South America to the Bering Sea. The new cutters carry two helicopters and 2 long and short-range boats. The Legend Class cutters are real beauties!
USCGC Stratton getting underway
Captain Dorothy C. Stratton
Director of the SPARS, the Coast Guard Womens Reserve during WWII
That sounds like an exciting adventure and project Ron - have fun!
ReplyDeleteHi Randy,
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to the whole trip. Going to get lots of pics. Thanks Randy.