SAN DIEGO – A decommissioning ceremony for one of the Coast Guard’s 378-foot high endurance cutters will be held at Pier 4, at Naval Base San Diego, Tuesday, March 29, at 10 a.m.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Chase, homeported in San Diego, will be decommissioned after 43-years of service in a ceremony presided over by Vice Adm. Manson K. Brown, commander, Coast Guard Pacific Area.
The fourth of 12 Hamilton Class Cutters, the Chase is named after Salmon Portland Chase, who served as President Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury from 1841-1846. Chase is best known for organizing a then, disorganized Treasury Department. His efforts helped to provide Lincoln with the funding his administration needed during the Civil War.
The Chase’s final deployment was an eastern pacific counter narcotics patrol. During this patrol the crew of the Chase participated in the first-ever joint boarding team training program with the Peruvian Coast Guard in August 2009.
In 1999 the crew of the chase seized 15,432 pounds of cocaine, the second largest cocaine bust in Coast Guard history. Also in 1999, the Chase was the first U.S. ship to pull into the port of Corinto, Nicaragua in over thirty years. The crew of the Chase, in support of Project Handclasp, delivered needed materials and provided assistance to two communities in Nicaragua following two major landslides in the area.
During the course of it’s service, the crew of the Chase earned several notable awards including the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, The Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal and the Vietnam Service Medal.
The Chase’s missions include national and maritime safety and security, maritime law enforcement, fisheries enforcement, drug and migrant interdiction, and search and rescue.
