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USCGC Dauntless (WMEC-624)
Encyclopedia
The USCGC Dauntless (WMEC-624) is a United States Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
cutter, commissioned in 1968 and still on active duty.
She is the first cutter in Coast Guard history to hold this name. Like all ships in the Reliance class of 210-foot medium-endurance cutters, Dauntless is named for an aspirational trait, in this case meaning to "persevere fearlessly." This trait is further reflected in the ship's motto Sin Miedo which, in Spanish, means "Without Fear."
Since her commissioning, Dauntless was homeported in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, until 1993, when she was decommissioned and entered Major Maintenance Availability (MMA) at the Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. After 18 months and at a total cost of $21 million, the ship was completely overhauled from stem to stern. The major renovations included the addition of an engine exhaust stack aft of the pilot house, a complete powerplant overhaul, installation of new navigation and communications systems, and extensive habitability improvements. After MMA, Dauntless was assigned to her new homeport of Galveston, Texas
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...
.
Dauntless has earned a reputation as one of the nation's premier "drug busters." Dauntless became the first cutter in history to seize one million pounds of marijuana, an accomplishment signified by a large gold marijuana leaf painted on her superstructure
Superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships...
. During her Coast Guard career, Dauntless has over 85 illegal narcotics "busts" to her credit, more than any other cutter.
She has also played a leading role in search and rescue
Search and rescue
Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...
(SAR) operations. During the mass Cuban exodus (see Mariel boatlift
Mariel boatlift
The Mariel boatlift was a mass emigration of Cubans who departed from Cuba's Mariel Harbor for the United States between April 15 and October 31, 1980....
) between April 23 and May 13, 1980, over 25 vessels were towed to safety, eight persons adrift at sea were rescued, and an astonishing 55 SAR cases were conducted. The ship's most- publicized case occurred during January 1986, when Dauntless was first to arrive and served as on-scene commander (until relieved by USCGC Dallas) for the response to the space shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
Challenger disaster. On November 24, 1995, Dauntless rescued 578 migrants from a grossly overloaded 75-foot coastal freighter, the largest number of migrants rescued from a single vessel in Coast Guard history.
Since relocating to Galveston, Dauntless has proudly performed her primary missions of law enforcement, alien migrant interdiction operations, protection of marine resources, SAR, and more recently homeland defense
Homeland defense
Homeland defense is the protection of U.S. territory, sovereignty, domestic population, and critical infrastructure against external threats and aggression....
in the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
. Operational highlights include the four "drug busts" resulting in over 3,000 pounds of illegal drugs seized; and the September 2001 rescue of a young commercial mariner from Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
who had fallen overboard from the vessel on which he was working, and was successfully located and returned to his ship. Since the events of September 11, 2001, Dauntless has conducted several patrols dedicated to enhancing port security in the Gulf of Mexico.
The cutter's awards include the Coast Guard Unit Commendation (2), the Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation (5), the Coast Guard Bicentennial Unit Commendation, the Coast Guard "E" ribbon (7), the National Defense Service Medal (3), and the Humanitarian Service Medal (3). President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
visited the cutter on November 17, 1982 and awarded her the Coast Guard Unit Commendation. It was the first time in 19 years that a President visited a Coast Guard cutter.
She has appeared in two motion pictures: The Island
The Island (1980 film)
The Island is a 1980 American thriller film, directed by Michael Ritchie and starring Michael Caine and David Warner. The film was based on a novel of the same name by Peter Benchley who also wrote the screenplay...
, in which (portraying the fictitious USCGC New Hope) she was boarded and seized by Caribbean pirates, and in the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film Licence to Kill
Licence to Kill
Licence to Kill, released in 1989, is the sixteenth entry in the Eon Productions James Bond series and the first one not to use the title of an Ian Fleming novel. It marks Timothy Dalton's second and final performance in his brief tenure in the lead role of James Bond...
.