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	US Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Tezanos' crew mans the rail during the commissioning ceremony.
History
United States
Name	Joseph Tezanos
Namesake	Joseph Tezanos
Operator	United States Coast Guard
Builder	Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, Louisiana
Acquired	June 22, 2016
Commissioned	August 26, 2016
Homeport	San Juan, Puerto Rico
Identification	Hull number: WPC-1118
Motto	Forjado Del Fuego (Forged Through Fire)
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	2 × 4,300 kW (5,800 shp); 1 × 75 kW (101 shp) bow thruster;
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 × Cutter Boat - Over the Horizon Interceptor
Complement	4 officers, 20 crew
Sensors and ; processing systems	L-3 C4ISR suite
Armament	1 × Mk 38 Mod 2 25 mm automatic gun; 4 × crew-served Browning M2 machine guns;

USCGC Joseph Tezanos (WPC-1118) is the United States Coast Guard's 18th Sentinel-class cutter. She was commissioned on August 26, 2016. She was the sixth of the first cohort of six Fast Response Cutters home-ported in San Juan, Puerto Rico.^[2]^[3]

Design

Like her sister ships, Joseph Tezanos is designed to perform search and rescue missions, port security, and the interception of smugglers.^[2] She is armed with a remotely-controlled, gyro-stabilized 25 mm autocannon, four crew served M2 Browning machine guns, and light arms. She is equipped with a stern launching ramp, that allows her to launch or retrieve a water-jet propelled high-speed auxiliary boat, without first coming to a stop. Her high-speed boat has over-the-horizon capability, and is useful for inspecting other vessels, and deploying boarding parties.

Operational career

Just days before being commissioned into active service, Joseph Tezanos was the on-scene coordinator for the rescue of the burning cruise ferry Caribbean Fantasy^[4] several miles outside of San Juan harbor. Leading a flotilla of federal, territorial, commercial, and Good Samaritan vessels, the plankowner crew of Joseph Tezanos saved all 511 crewmembers and passengers from Caribbean Fantasy. This was the largest mass rescue in US waters since the Andrea Doria.^[5]

In late March 2019, Joseph Tezanos seized a large shipment of illegal drugs from a 30 feet (9.1 m) "go-fast" vessel off Loiza, Puerto Rico.^[6]^[7] Three smugglers from the Dominican Republic were seized, together with $25 million worth of cocaine, and 2 tons of marijuana, worth an additional $3.5 million.

Namesake

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] The Coast Guard chose Joseph Tezanos as the namesake of the 18th cutter. Tezanos enlisted in the Coast Guard after the breakout of World War II, in 1942.^[10] He served as a gunner's mate aboard the Landing Ship Tank LST 20 where landings included Kiska, Alaska, Tarawa Atoll, and Kwajalein Atoll. In April 1944, while moored in Pearl Harbor the LST 20 was near a cataclysmic explosion among vessels loaded with ammunition that posed a grave risk of setting off the explosives in other vessels. Tezanos led a crew of volunteers that took a boat dangerously close to the conflagration, and rescued over forty survivors.

References

^ "USCGC Joseph Tezanos (WPC 1118)". The Institute of Heraldry. U.S. Army. Retrieved November 29, 2024.
^ ^a ^b "FRC Plan B: The Sentinel Class". Defense Industry Daily. May 2, 2014. Archived from the original on July 7, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2014. 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...
^ "Coast Guard commissions U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Tezanos in San Juan, Puerto Rico". Coast Guard News. August 26, 2016. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
^ "Coast Guard commissions U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Tezanos in San Juan | Coast Guard News". coastguardnews.com. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
^ Andrews, Evan. "The Sinking of Andrea Doria". HISTORY. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
^ "US Coast Guard seizes ganja worth over US$3.5m, nabs six suspects in Caribbean". Jamaica Observer. Miami. March 30, 2019. Archived from the original on March 31, 2019. Retrieved March 31, 2019. The United Coast Guard says it seized nearly 2,000 pounds of marijuana with a street value of more than US$3.5 million during an exercise in the Caribbean Sea. It said six smugglers had been detained.
^ "US Coast Guard seizes millions in marijuana, nabs six drug suspects in Caribbean Sea". Jamaica Observer. Miami. March 31, 2019. Archived from the original on March 31, 2019. Retrieved March 31, 2019. Last weekend, the crew of the cutter Joseph Tezanos (WPC-1118) offloaded 2,513 pounds of cocaine and transferred custody of three suspected smugglers to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agents in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
^ Susan Schept (March 22, 2010). "Enlisted heroes honored". United States Coast Guard. Archived from the original on December 3, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2013. 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.
^ "U.S. Coast Guard announces name for first Sentinel-class cutter". March 22, 2010. Archived from the original on March 25, 2010. Retrieved February 1, 2013. 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.
^ Stephanie Young, William H. Thiesen (January 16, 2014). "Coast Guard Heroes: Joseph Tezanos". USCG. Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved September 13, 2014.