Coast Guard icebreaker returns home after 124-day Arctic deployment

Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) crew members and science team enjoy ice liberty at the North Pole, Oct. 2, 2022. U.S. Coast Guard video photo by Chief Petty Officer Roy Mesen Scott.

Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) crew members and science team enjoy ice liberty at the North Pole, Oct. 2, 2022. U.S. Coast Guard video photo by Chief Petty Officer Roy Mesen Scott.

SEATTLE — U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) is scheduled to return home to Seattle, Friday, following a historic 17,000-mile, 124-day deployment in the high Arctic latitudes that included a transit to the North Pole.

The crew’s efforts demonstrated interoperability in the Polar Region, supported U.S. security objectives, and projected an ice-capable presence in Arctic waters and the Gulf of Alaska.

Commissioned in 2000, Healy is a 420-foot medium icebreaker and a uniquely capable oceanographic research platform. Healy’s crew traversed the ice-packed Arctic Ocean to the top of the world, reaching the geographic North Pole on Sept. 30, 2022. This was only the second time a U.S. vessel had reached 90 degrees north unaccompanied.

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