Hamilton returns home after 80-day patrol

Listen to this article

The Coast Guard National Security Cutter Hamilton returned to Charleston on Sunday after completing an 80-day patrol in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

The Hamilton is one of two 418-foot cutters homeported in Charleston; the other is the James. The Hamilton was commission in 2014.

The crew of the Hamilton began their deployment, along with the Coast Guard’s Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron, in late January, initially serving as the first National Security Cutter to participate in a Navy Composite Training Unit Exercise.

The three-week exercise integrated the Hamilton with the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower as well as ships and aircraft of Carrier Strike Group Ten to test the strike group’s ability to carry out sustained combat operations at sea.

Following that exercise, the Hamilton deployed to the eastern Pacific Ocean as part of a partnership under the Joint Interagency Task Force South, a component of U.S. Southern Command that oversees the detection and monitoring of illicit traffickers in coordination with law enforcement agencies.

The Hamilton’s crew seized three drug-carrying vessels and apprehended eight suspected traffickers, according to a news release. Two of the vessels were semi-submersibles, which are built low to the waterline to avoid detection.

The ship’s law enforcement team detained the suspects and turned them over to the Drug Enforcement Agency for potential prosecution, the news release said.

The Hamilton also assisted in the removal of 7 tons of cocaine and 1,400 pounds of marijuana seized from a heavily trafficked zone by several other Coast Guard cutters, the USS Tornado and the Canadian vessel HMCS Nanaimo, the news release said.

The Hamilton offloaded a total of $324 million worth of cocaine and marijuana Friday at Port Everglades in Florida before coming to Charleston.

“This is about more than piles of drugs never reaching our city streets,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Tetzlaff, an operations specialist. “By keeping this threat far from our shores, we make for a safer and more secure United States.”