EDITOR'S NOTE: Media interested in attending the commissioning ceremony are required to RSVP with Lt. j.g. Peter Bermont at Coast Guard Sector Key West at 516-498-7705. Media must arrive no later than 10 a.m., and bring valid government-issued identification to be granted access to Coast Guard Sector Key West, Fla. Interviews will be available following commissioning ceremony. Media will not be allowed inside unless RSVP'd.
WHO: Coast Guard 7th District commander, Adm. Jake Korn; Coast Guard Sector Key West commander, Capt. Aylwyn Young; U.S. Congressman Carlos Curbelo; Audie Dodson, Isaac Mayo’s great-great-great granddaughter and sponsor of the cutter; Cynthia Martin, Isaac Mayo’s other great-great-great granddaughter and presenter of the ceremonial long glass that Mayo used at sea in the mid to late 1800s; and Charles Rich, great-great-great grandson of Isaac Mayo who will raise the Commissioning Pennant.
WHAT: Coast Guard Cutter Isaac Mayo is the 12th Sentinel Class Fast Response Cutter (FRC) to arrive to Coast Guard 7th District, and the sixth scheduled to be commissioned at Coast Guard Sector Key West, Saturday at 11 a.m.
The Sentinel Class FRCs are designed to conduct maritime drug interdiction, alien migrant interdiction, search and rescue, national defense, homeland security, living marine resource protection and other Coast Guard missions. This class of patrol boat is capable of deploying independently to execute Coast Guard missions and prevent potential threats from approaching our shores and offers vastly improved capabilities over the aging 110-foot Island class patrol boats it replaces. The FRC is part of the Coast Guard's layered approach to maritime security that includes the National Security Cutter and the Offshore Patrol Cutter.
The 154-foot long Coast Guard Cutter Isaac Mayo is homeported in Key West has a beam of 25 feet and a maximum sustained speed of more than 28 knots. The Isaac Mayo is armed with a stabilized 25mm machine-gun mount and four crew-served .50-caliber machine guns.
WHEN: Saturday at 11:00 a.m.
WHERE: Coast Guard Sector Key West, 100 Trumbo Road, Key West, Fla., 33040-6655.
MORE INFO: Each FRC is named for an enlisted Coast Guard hero who distinguished him or herself in the line of duty. This vessel is named after Coast Guard hero, Isaac Mayo. In the spring of 1879 a raging snowstorm blanketed the shores of the Northeastern United States. The perilous seas and weather caused a three-masted schooner, the Sarah J. Fort to wreck on the shores of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Mayo displayed extraordinary character during the disarray as he and his crew faced the storm to rescue the schooner’s sailors. Because of Mayo’s exemplary surfman and leadership skills throughout the challenging rescue, Mayo was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal on November 10, 1879.
The Key West Navy League Commissioning Committee is supporting the commissioning through funding of activities traditionally associated with a commissioning, separate and apart from the U.S. Coast Guard.