Coast Guard cutter back on duty with N.E. patrol

NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have given the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Morro Bay a new life.

The Morro Bay, which was decommissioned and sent to a Baltimore shipyard for retired ships, is back patrolling the waters off New England.

It was recommissioned Monday. In addition to its patrolling duties, the ship will serve as a training vessel for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and to break ice as needed in New York’s Hudson River and Maine’s Penobscot Bay.

The Morro Bay, commissioned in 1981, is a 140-foot cutter designed to punch through almost two feet of ice at a speed of 3 knots. The ships in the bay cutter class are also used for search and rescue, law enforcement, environmental protection and other missions.

The ship was decommissioned in September 1998 and transferred to the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore as part of the decommissioned fleet.

After Sept. 11, the service was looking to quickly expand the number of ships available for anti-terrorism and port protection, so the Morro Bay was worked on to re-enter the fleet.

The ship went to work a few months ago.

“We knew we had to hit the decks running,” said the captain of the cutter, Lt. Reino Ecklord. “We were busy with maintenance and training and operations, and we didn’t have the time for a re-commissioning ceremony until now.”

The Morro Bay was used earlier this month to search for a small plane that went down off the Massachusetts coast.

The ship also has already done patrols off New York, escorted two natural gas tankers into Boston Harbor and escorted nuclear submarines departing or returning to Groton, according to Rear Adm. Vivien Crea, commander of the First Coast Guard District, headquartered in Boston.

The ship will be berthed at the Coast Guard Academy.

The academy’s superintendent, Rear Adm. Robert C. Olsen Jr., said the ship will help improve security for the southeastern Connecticut waterfront.

Also, the ship is badly needed for training, Olsen said. The Coast Guard has increased the size of its Officer Candidate School classes, and it needs to augment its sail training ship, Eagle, as a training vessel.

“We haven’t had the platforms we need for even basic familiarization,” Olsen said. “This is going to be a great asset for the entire community.”