USCGC Fir (WLB-213) is a Juniper-class United States Coast Guard Cutter. Fir is under the Operational Control (OPCON) of the Commander, Thirteenth Coast Guard District and is homeported in Astoria, Oregon. Fir's primary area of responsibility is the coastal waters, river bars and high seas of the Washington and Oregon coasts. Fir conducts heavy lift aids to navigation operations, law enforcement and other missions as directed.

Overview

Fir is the multi-mission heavy lift platform for the U. S. Coast Guard Thirteenth District. Fir was launched on August 18, 2003, and commissioned on November 8, 2003.

Firs homeport is Astoria, Oregon

Astoria, Oregon

Astoria is the county seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Situated near the mouth of the Columbia River, the city was named after the American investor John Jacob Astor. His American Fur Company founded Fort Astoria at the site in 1811...

.

Missions

Fir, a seagoing buoy tender

Buoy tender

A buoy tender is a type of vessel used to maintain and replace navigational buoys. The name is also used for someone who works on such a vessel and maintains buoys....

, is responsible for over 150 aids to navigation for an area of responsibility that stretches from the Oregon-California Border to the Canadian border and includes the dangerous river bars of the Pacific Northwest. Fir also conducts extensive law enforcement operations, and is always ready to perform port waterways and coastal security, search and rescue, and marine environmental response operations.

Technology & Equipment

Fir is equipped with a dynamic positioning system that utilizes a bow thruster, stern truster and the ship's controllable pitch propellor to hold the ship's position and heading at the push of a button. The dynamic positioning system relies on inputs from the Differential Global Positioning System. In dynamic positioning mode the ship can be driven with a joystick from several locations on the bridge, and from a mobile ship control console.

The ship recently converted all of its lighted aids to navigation from incandescent

Incandescent light bulb

The incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe makes light by heating a metal filament wire to a high temperature until it glows. The hot filament is protected from air by a glass bulb that is filled with inert gas or evacuated. In a halogen lamp, a chemical process...

 to LED

LED lamp

An LED lamp is a solid-state lamp that uses light-emitting diodes as the source of light. The LEDs involved may be conventional semiconductor light-emitting diodes, organic LEDs , or polymer light-emitting diodes devices, although PLED technologies are not currently commercially available.Since...

 lights. Fir is the first unit in the Coast Guard to do so.

As a heavy lift platform Fir has a 20-ton hydraulic crane, a chain in-haul system and 4 heavy cross-deck winches.

Fir carries two small boats; a cutter boat large (CB-L), specifically designed for law enforcement, and a CG Standard Utility Boat (UTL).

Fir is armed with several .50cal Machine Guns, M240 light machine guns, and small arms for law enforcement and defense operations. In accordance with United States and international law,Fir is a United States warship.

History

Fir is named after one of the original lighthouse tenders built for the Lighthouse Service to resupply lighthouses and lightships, and to service buoys. The original was built by the Moore Drydock Company in Oakland, California in 1939. After serving as a truly multi-mission platform, adapting to the changing missions of the Coast Guard for over 50 years, Fir was decommissioned in 1991.

In May 2009, Fir was on scene commander for a plane crash in the Columbia River. An experimental plane flying from Astoria to Seattle suffered engine failure and ditched in the Columbia River in the vicinity of the 17th Street Pier where Fir and were moored. Working with a local salvage crew, Fir recovered the airplane. Both passengers were rescued by the Columbia River Bar Pilots.

From June to October 2010, Fir was deployed to the Gulf of Mexico for Operation Deepwater Horizon. In total, eight of the Coast Guard's sixteen Juniper-class buoy tenders were deployed to the Gulf of Mexico for the nation's largest ever oil spill to conduct oil skimming operations, command and control and public relations. CGC ASPEN, CGC ELM, CGC OAK, CGC WALNUT, CGC JUNIPER, CGC SYCAMORE, CGC CYPRESS and CGC FIR were involved in skimming and/or other contingency operations.

It is distinct from a predecessor ship of the same name, .

Awards and honors

US Coast Guard E Ribbon for the period of 7 February to 4 March 2005, at Fleet Training Group (FTG) San Diego California.

US Coast Guard E Ribbon for the period of 29 October to 16 November 2007, at Fleet Training Group (FTG) San Diego California.