PORTSMOUTH

It’s namesake is one of the Coast Guard’s most storied ships, but today’s Cutter Bear has colorful chapters all its own as it marks its silver anniversary.

From combat support and disaster relief around the globe, to fighting terrorism and the international drug trade with its seizure of a half-billion dollars’ worth of illegal narcotics, the Bear – first of 13 ships in the “Famous Class” of cutters – spends its birthday today as it has much of its service, on patrol. 

But the crew of the Portsmouth-based, 270-foot, medium-endurance cutter took time out this weekend to mark the occasion as best they could, standing on deck in a "25" formation for a formal portrait taken from a Coast Guard helicopter hovering above.

"We are very proud to serve on Bear as she reaches 25 years of distinguished service to the United States," said Cmdr. Wes Pulver, Bear's commanding officer. "The cutter's 25th birthday marks a proud moment in her career, which includes 21 drug busts and response to numerous national emergencies."

The keel of the present-day Bear was laid on Aug. 23, 1979, and it was launched on Sept. 25, 1980. The cutter was formally commissioned into Coast Guard service on Feb. 4, 1983.

Almost from its first day at sea, its crews have tackled tough missions.

• In 1986, Bear responded to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. The vessel's crew searched more than 1,900 nautical square miles of the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast, aiding in the recovery of critical evidence in the loss of the shuttle.

• In 1989, Bear served as the tactical command base for initial rescue and relief operations on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands after the devastating hit delivered by Hurricane Hugo. The crew evacuated 139 U.S. citizens and coordinated the evacuation of another 100 sick and injured civilians and initiated the national relief response for the more than 50,000 residents on the island. 

• The Bear has responded to two armed hijackings on the high seas. The most dramatic occurred on the 250-foot coastal freighter Madrid in March 1989 when 39 armed hijackers, led by 5 deserters from the Haitian Army, took control of the vessel at gun point. A boarding team from the Bear disarmed the hijackers, returned control of the vessel to its master, and freed 15 people, including a small child being held hostage.

• In the early 1990s, the cutter participated in operations "Able Manner" and "Uphold Democracy" off the coast of Haiti, and "Operation Able Vigil" assisting in the interdiction of more than 36,000 Cuban migrants in the Florida Straits.

• In the summer of 1999, the cutter deployed to the Adriatic Sea in support of "Operation Allied Force" and "Operation Noble Anvil," NATO's military campaign against the forces of the former republic of Yugoslavia. Bear was part of the carrier Theodore Roosevelt's naval battle group providing, surface surveillance and search and rescue. It also provided force protection for the amphibious ready group operating near Albania. The cutter also provided combat escort for Army vessels transporting military cargo between Italy and Albania, operating well within enemy surface to surface missile range.

• When hostilities in the Adriatic concluded, the Bear entered the Black Sea and became the first Coast Guard cutter to participate in "Exercise Cooperative Partner," a joint military exercise involving ships and aircraft from the U.S., France, Greece, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and Georgia. Bear completed the summer by providing training to the Tunisian and Royal Moroccan navies. In that time, the Bear made port calls in Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Tunisia, Gibraltar, Morocco and the Azores.

• During it 25 years of service, the cutter has made 9 cocaine and 12 marijuana seizures, keeping more than $500 million worth of illegal drugs off the streets.

The Bear is named after one of the most historic ships in Coast Guard history: the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear (AG-29), a 199-foot steam-powered barkentine fashioned of heavy oak and built in Scotland in 1874.

It was purchased by the U.S. government in 1884 and, a year later, was transferred to the Treasury Department.

Serving in the Revenue Marine's Alaskan patrol, it conducted 34 patrols in the Bering Sea over more than 40 years. Bear's crew rescued shipwrecked mariners, broke paths through ice, enforced fisheries laws, carried mail, made hydrographic surveys, delivered Siberian reindeer to native Alaskans and served as a floating territorial courtroom.

Between 1886 and 1895, the cutter was under command of Capt. Michael Healy, who received his commission from President Abraham Lincoln and was the nation's first commissioned African-American officer.

After being retired by the Revenue Cutter Service in 1928, Bear was used by Richard Byrd as his flagship for two geographical expeditions to Antarctica in the 1930s.

Bear was taken into naval service during World War II and served on the Greenland Patrol as USS Bear (AG 29) until the ship was decommissioned in 1944, transferred to the Maritime Commission and sold. 

Steve Stone, (757) 446-2309, steve.stone@pilotonline.com [1]