BOSTON – The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Campbell returned Friday to its homeport of Kittery, Maine, following a 45-day patrol in the North Atlantic.
The cutter’s primary missions during the patrol included conducting 60 living marine resource boardings, involving the identification of 25 safety and fisheries violations, as well as search and rescue, and participation in a multi-national training exercise.
During the patrol, the crew responded to a vessel in distress 69 nautical miles off the coast of Fire Island, New York. The crew worked late into the night to assess the situation and establish a tow. After towing the vessel for more than 55 nautical miles, the Campbell's crew safely transferred the vessel to a commercial towing service and resumed search and rescue efforts for the overdue vessel, Chicken Pox.
The crew also traveled north to Canadian waters to participate in Operation Frontier Sentinel, an annual multi-national training exercise with the United States and Canadian Navy designed to maintain and improve relations with an essential maritime partner. The training focused on collaborative planning between multiple government agencies in both countries, and on their ability to respond to maritime security threats on the Atlantic.
Thursday the crew of the Campbell honored a former shipmate by conducting a burial at sea ceremony for a chief quartermaster who served in the Coast Guard in the Asiatic Pacific Area Campaign during WWII.
The Campbell is a 270-foot medium endurance cutter with a crew complement of 13 officers and 81 enlisted personnel.