Rollin Fritch prepares to head to her homeport, Cape May, New Jersey, on September 1, 2016 | |
History | |
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United States | |
Name | Rollin Fritch |
Namesake | Rollin Arnold Fritch |
Operator | United States Coast Guard |
Builder | Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, Louisiana |
Launched | August 23, 2016 |
Acquired | August 23, 2016 [1] |
Commissioned | November 19, 2016 [2] |
Homeport | Cape May, New Jersey |
Identification |
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Motto | Until properly relieved |
Status | in active service |
Badge | |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Sentinel-class cutter |
Displacement | 353 long tons (359 t) |
Length | 46.8 m (154 ft) |
Beam | 8.11 m (26.6 ft) |
Depth | 2.9 m (9.5 ft) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) |
Range | 2,500 nautical miles (4,600 km; 2,900 mi) |
Endurance | 5 days |
Boats & landing craft carried | 1 × Short Range Prosecutor RHIB |
Complement | 2 officers, 20 crew |
Sensors and processing systems | L-3 C4ISR suite |
Armament |
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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. [3] [4]
Like her sister ships she was built in the Bollinger Shipyards, in Lockport, Louisiana. [5] She was delivered for her sea trials on August 23, 2016, [1] and commissioned on November 19, 2016. [2] [3]
Rollin Fritch, like her sister Sentinel-class cutters, is designed with an endurance of five days, and 2,950 nautical miles (5,460 km). [6] [7] She is armed with a 25 mm autocannon, gyro-stabilized, and fired from a sensor equipped remote weapons station on the bridge, supplemented by four crew-served M2 Browning machine guns. Her maximum speed is in excess of 28 knots (52 km/h).
She carries a waterjet-propelled high-speed pursuit boat, deployed and retrieved via a stern launching ramp. [6] [7] The ramp allows the pursuit boat to be deployed and retrieved without bringing the cutter to a stop.
Rollin Fritch, like her sister ships, is designed for search and rescue, and the interception of smugglers. [3] Her high-speed waterjet-propelled pursuit boat, launched from her stern launching ramp, make her a potent weapon for the interception of smugglers.
The homeport of Rollin Fritch and her sister ship, Lawrence O. Lawson is the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May. [4] According to the Cape May County Herald local citizens welcome the Coast Guard presence, and its contribution to the local economy.
In 2010, Charles "Skip" W. Bowen, who was then the United States Coast Guard's most senior non-commissioned officer, proposed that all 58 cutters in the Sentinel class should be named after enlisted sailors in the Coast Guard, or one of its precursor services, who were recognized for their heroism. [8] [9] In 2014 the Coast Guard announced that Rollin A. Fritch, a Coast Guard seaman who earned a posthumous Silver Star for his service on the transport USS Callaway during World War II, would be the namesake of the 19th cutter. [3] [10] [11] [12] Fritch served as a gunner who was seen bravely firing his anti-aircraft gun at a kamikaze aircraft right up until it struck the bridge where his gun was sited.
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 58 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.
USS Callaway (APA-35) was a Bayfield-class attack transport that served with the US Navy, and was manned by the United States Coast Guard during World War II.
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.
Kathleen Moore, also known as Catherine Moore, Kathleen A. Moore, Kathleen Andre Moore, Kate Moore, and Catherine A. Moore, was a lighthouse keeper. She was employed by the United States Lighthouse Service, which was a precursor agency to the United States Coast Guard.
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.
Rollin Arnold Fritch was a United States Coast Guard seaman who died at his weapons station while shooting at a Japanese kamikaze, during World War II.
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 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.
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 Forrest Rednour (WPC-1129) is the 29th Sentinel-class cutter built for the United States Coast Guard. She is the first of the four vessels of her class to be home-ported in San Pedro, California. Other sister ships have been based in Florida, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, New Jersey, North Carolina, Hawaii and Alaska. But Forrest Rednour is the first to be homeported on the west coast of the lower 48 states. The vessel will be homeported at a base near Los Angeles' Terminal Island. Three sister ships will join her, at this base.
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.
Angela McShan was a highly regarded Coast Guardsman in the United States Coast Guard. In 1999 McShan was the first African-American to be appointed an instructor at the Chief Petty Officers' Academy. In 2000 McShan was the Coast Guard's first African-American woman to be promoted to Master Chief Petty Officer.
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 Edgar Culbertson (WPC-1137) is the United States Coast Guard's 37th Sentinel-class cutter, and the second of three to be homeported in Galveston, Texas.
USCGC Myrtle Hazard (WPC-1139) is the United States Coast Guard's 39th Sentinel-class cutter.
USCGC Angela McShan (WPC-1135) is the United States Coast Guard's 35th Sentinel-class cutter.
USCGC Charles Moulthrope (WPC-1141) is the United States Coast Guard's 41st Sentinel-class cutter, and the first of six to be homeported in Manama, Bahrain.
Although the cutter is far from luxurious, its crew quarters provide slightly more room and comfort than earlier models, with larger staterooms, more toilets and sinks, greater storage space, and DirecTV access in the mess areas.
First, November 19 is the official ceremony for the commissioning of the USCG Rollin A. Fritch, a Sentinel Class or "Fast Response Cutter" (FRC) to be homeported at Training Center Cape May. This is the first of three FRCs to be homeported at TRACEN replacing the aging (now 40 years old) 210-foot cutters previously based there.
The decision to homeport the Rollin Fritch in New Jersey officially marks the expansion of FRC operations outside the Bahamas and the Caribbean. The Coast Guard plans to station FRCs in virtually every coastal state, but so far the first 17 FRCs have been stationed in either Florida or Puerto Rico.
The Coast Guard took delivery of the cutter today in Key West, FL, and is scheduled to commission the vessel in Cape May, NJ, in November.
All previous cutters have been stationed in the 7th Coast Guard District in Florida or San Juan, Puerto Rico. The decision to homeport the Rollin Fritch in Cape May, N.J. is significant because it expands the footprint of FRC operations beyond the Bahamas and the Caribbean.
After the passing of several well-known Coast Guard heroes last year, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Charles "Skip" Bowen mentioned in his blog that the Coast Guard does not do enough to honor its fallen heroes.
Previously designated to be named the Coast Guard Cutter Sentinel, the cutter Bernard C. Webber will be the first of the service's new 153-foot patrol cutters. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen approved the change of the cutter's name to allow this class of vessels to be named after outstanding enlisted members who demonstrated exceptional heroism in the line of duty. This will be the first class of cutters to be named exclusively for enlisted members of the Coast Guard and its predecessor services.
All of these boats will be named after enlisted Coast Guard heroes, who distinguished themselves in USCG or military service. The first 25 have been named, but only 8 have been commissioned...
Fuller said Rollin was the youngest of seven kids in her dad's family and although the Coast Guard lists his birthplace as Pawnee City, Rollin was born in Blue Rapids, Kansas, about 56 miles southwest of Pawnee City.
The Coast Guard recently announced the names of 10 Sentinel-Class Fast Response Cutters (WPCs 1116-1125) through a series of posts on its official blog, the Coast Guard Compass. Like the first 15 ships in the class, each ship will honor a Coast Guard enlisted hero.