Oliver Fuller Berry | |
---|---|
Born | Marion, South Carolina, US | March 8, 1908
Died | September 13, 1991 83) Florence, South Carolina, US | (aged
Buried | Mount Hope Cemetery, Florence |
Allegiance | United States of America |
Service/ | United States Coast Guard |
Years of service | 1928–1950 |
Rank | Chief Petty Officer |
Oliver Fuller Berry (March 8, 1908 - September 13, 1991) was a chief petty officer in the United States Coast Guard who was chosen to be the namesake for the twenty-fourth cutter of the Sentinel class. [1] He was one of the first Coast Guard aircraft technicians trained to work on helicopters. [2]
Berry was born in Marion, South Carolina, and graduated from The Citadel in 1928; originally an officer in the United States Army Reserve he gave up his commission to enlist in the Coast Guard.
Berry became a highly skilled mechanic working on early Coast Guard aircraft both land based and seaplanes. He was also one of the world's first experts on the maintenance of helicopters and was lead instructor at the first military helicopter training unit, the Rotary Wing Development Unit, which was established at Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, in 1946. He also helped develop the rescue hoist.
In the same year, Berry played a role in a helicopter rescue from a US base in Gander, Newfoundland, that earned him a commendation. Helicopters were new to search and rescue and one was urgently required to search for survivors of a commercial airliner crash in Newfoundland. Berry was able to quickly disassemble one of the primitive helicopters of the time so that its parts could be flown to Gander in a cargo plane and then quickly reassemble it in time to find and rescue several survivors. He was awarded the Silver Medal of the Order of Leopold II by Prince Charles, the Royal Regent of Belgium, for his contribution to the rescue of eighteen Belgian citizens. [3]
The Coast Guard established an annual award named after Berry, issued to an outstanding aircraft technician who best followed his tradition.
In 2015, the Coast Guard announced that one of the new Sentinel class cutters would be named after Berry. All the ships in that class are named after enlisted personnel who distinguished themselves through a heroic act. Bollinger shipyards completed the USCGC Oliver F. Berry (WPC 1124) and delivered her to the Coast Guard, in Key West, for her sea trials, on June 27, 2017. Commissioning took place at the vessel's home port of Honolulu, Hawaii, on October 31, 2017. [4]
The Sentinel-class cutter, also known as the Fast Response Cutter due to its program name, is part of the United States Coast Guard's Deepwater program. At 154 feet (46.8 m), it is similar to, but larger than, the 123-foot (37 m) lengthened 1980s-era Island-class patrol boats that it replaces. Up to 71 vessels are to be built by the Louisiana-based firm Bollinger Shipyards, using a design from the Netherlands-based Damen Group, with the Sentinel design based on the company's Damen Stan 4708 patrol vessel. The Department of Homeland Security's budget proposal to Congress, for the Coast Guard, for 2021, stated that, in addition to 58 vessels to serve the Continental US, they requested an additional six vessels for its portion of Patrol Forces Southwest Asia.
USCGC Bernard C. Webber (WPC-1101) is the first of the United States Coast Guard's 58 Sentinel-class cutters. Like most of her sister ships, she replaced a 110-foot (34 m) Island-class patrol boat. Bernard C. Webber, and the next five vessels in the class, Richard Etheridge, William Flores, Robert Yered, Margaret Norvell, and Paul Clark, are all based in Miami, Florida.
USCGC Charles David Jr is the seventh Sentinel-class cutter. Upon her commissioning she was assigned to serve in Key West, Florida, as the first of six vessels to be based there. She was delivered to the Coast Guard, for testing, on August 17, 2013. She was officially commissioned on November 16, 2013.
USCGC Charles Sexton (WPC-1108) is the eighth Sentinel-class cutter, and the second to be based in Key West, Florida. She was delivered to the United States Coast Guard for a final evaluation and shakedown on December 10, 2013, and the vessel was commissioned on March 8, 2014.
USCGC Raymond Evans is the tenth vessel in the United States Coast Guard's Sentinel-class cutter. All the vessels are named after members of the Coast Guard, or its precursor services, who are remembered for their heroism. Names had already been assigned for the first fourteen vessels, when Commander Raymond Evans died, and the USCG Commandant announced that the next Sentinel class cutter would be named after him. Joseph Napier, who was originally scheduled to be the namesake of the tenth vessel, had his name moved to the beginning of the second list of heroes names, and will now be the namesake of the fifteenth vessel.
USCGC Joseph Napier is a Sentinel-class cutter homeported in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She is the fifteenth Sentinel class to be delivered, and the third of six to be assigned to Puerto Rico. she was commissioned on 29 January 2016.
USCGC Winslow Griesser (WPC-1116) was the sixteenth Sentinel-class cutter to be delivered. She is the fourth of six Sentinel-class vessels to be stationed in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Bollinger shipyards delivered her to the United States Coast Guard, in Key West, Florida, on December 23, 2015. After she completed her acceptance trials, she was commissioned on March 11, 2016.
Winslow W. Griesser (1856–1931) was a station keeper in the United States Life-Saving Service, one of the agencies that were merged to form the United States Coast Guard. In 2016 the Coast Guard honored him by naming one of its new Sentinel-class cutters, USCGC Winslow W. Griesser, after him.
USCGC Lawrence Lawson is the 20th Sentinel-class cutter to be delivered to the United States Coast Guard. She was built at Bollinger Shipyards, in Lockport, Louisiana, and delivered to the Coast Guard, for her sea trials, on October 20, 2016. She was commissioned on March 18, 2017. She is the second cutter of her class to be the homeported at the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, New Jersey, and also the second to be stationed outside of the Caribbean.
USCGC Rollin Fritch is the US Coast Guard's 19th Sentinel-class cutter, and the first to be homeported outside of the Caribbean. She is based at the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, New Jersey.
USCGC John McCormick (WPC-1121) is the United States Coast Guard's 21st Sentinel-class cutter, and the first to be stationed in Alaska, where she is homeported at Coast Guard Base Ketchikan.
USCGC Bailey Barco (WPC-1122) is the United States Coast Guard's 22nd Sentinel-class cutter, and the second to be stationed in Alaska, where she was homeported at Coast Guard Base Ketchikan.
Bailey Taylor Barco was a stationkeeper and Captain with the United States Life-Saving Service—one of the agencies later merged into the United States Coast Guard. He led a rescue at his station Dam Neck Mills in present-day Virginia Beach, on December 21, 1900.
USCGC Benjamin Dailey (WPC-1123) was the United States Coast Guard's 23rd Sentinel-class cutter. She was the first cutter of her class stationed in the Coast Guard's Eight District, with a homeport in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
USCGC Joseph Gerczak (WPC-1126) is the 26th Sentinel-class cutter built for the United States Coast Guard. She is one of three Fast Response Cutters homeported in Honolulu, Hawaii.
USCGC Richard Snyder (WPC-1127) is the 27th Sentinel-class cutter built for the United States Coast Guard. She is the first of her class to be home-ported in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.
USCGC Oliver Berry (WPC-1124) is the United States Coast Guard's 24th Sentinel-class cutter. She was the first member of the three members of her class to be homeported in Honolulu, Hawaii.
USCGC William Sparling (WPC-1154) is the United States Coast Guard's 54th Sentinel-class cutter.
USCGC Harold Miller (WPC-1138) is the United States Coast Guard's 38th Sentinel-class cutter.
USCGC Jacob Poroo (WPC-1125) is the 25th Sentinel-class cutter. She is homeported in Coast Guard District 8, Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Bollinger Shipyards said it has delivered the Fast Response Cutter (FRC) USCGC Oliver Berry to the U.S. Coast Guard on June 27, 2017 in Key West, Fla. The vessel's commissioning is scheduled for October 2017 in Honolulu.