USCGC Bailey Barco

USCGC Bailey Barco (WPC-1122) is the United States Coast Guard's 22nd Sentinel-class cutter, and the second to be stationed in Alaska, where she was homeported at Coast Guard Base Ketchikan.^[3][4]

USCGC Bailey Barco at 2020
History
United States
Name	Bailey Barco
Namesake	Bailey T. Barco
Operator	United States Coast Guard
Builder	Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, Louisiana
Launched	February 7, 2017
Acquired	February 7, 2017^[1]
Commissioned	June 14, 2017^[2]
Homeport	Ketchikan, Alaska
Identification	MMSI number: 338926422 Callsign: NBAB Hull number: WPC-1122
Motto	Initiative courage fortitude
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 × Short Range Prosecutor RHIB
Complement	2 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

The vessel's manufacturer, Bollinger Shipyards, of Lockport, Louisiana, delivered the ship to the Coast Guard on February 7, 2017, for her acceptance trials.^[1][3][4] After completion sea trials, USCGC Bailey Barco was commissioned on June 14, 2017 in Juneau, Alaska.^[2][5]

Mission

The Sentinel-class cutters are lightly armed patrol vessels with a crew of approximately two dozen sailors, capable of traveling almost 3,000 nautical miles, on five day missions. The cutter is a multi-mission vessel intended to perform law enforcement, search and rescue, fisheries and environmental protection, and homeland security tasks.^[4]

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.^[6][7] In 2014 the Coast Guard announced that Bailey T. Barco, a keeper in the United States Lifesaving Service, one of the agencies merged to form the US Coast Guard, who earned a Gold lifesaving medal for managing the daring rescue of the crew of a sailing schooner that ran aground during a severe winter storm off Virginia Beach, in 1901, would be the namesake of the 22nd cutter.^[5][8][9]

References

1. "Acquisition Update: Coast Guard Accepts 22nd Fast Response Cutter" (Press release). United States Coast Guard. 2017-02-08. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
2. "USCGC Bailey Barco commissioned in Juneau, begins service in Southeast Alaska". KTOO. 2017-06-15. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
3. "Bollinger delivers latest Coast Guard cutter". Houma Today. 2017-02-08. Retrieved 2016-12-15. This vessel is named after McCormick, awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal on Nov. 7, 1938, for his heroic action in rescuing a fellow Coast Guardsman in treacherous conditions where the mouth of the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean in northwest Oregon.
4. Eric Haun (2017-02-08). "FRC Bailey Barco Delivered to the USCG". Marine link. Retrieved 2017-02-09. The U.S. Coast Guard has taken delivery of USCGC Bailey Barco on February 7, 2017 in Key West, Fla. The vessel is scheduled to be commissioned in Ketchikan, Alaska in June, 2017.
5. Matt Miller (2017-07-03). "Cutter's namesake, harrowing rescue effort that braved storm and surf honored decades later". KTOO-TV. Retrieved 2017-02-09. The newest cutter for Alaska, the 154-foot Bailey Barco, officially entered service during a commissioning ceremony June 14 on the Juneau waterfront.
6. Susan Schept (2010-03-22). "Enlisted heroes honored". United States Coast Guard. from the original on 2011-12-03. Retrieved 2013-02-01. 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.
7. . 2010-03-22. Archived from the original on 2010-03-25. Retrieved 2013-02-01. 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.
8. Christopher Havern (2014-01-22). "Coast Guard Heroes: Bailey T. Barco". US Coast Guard. Retrieved 2016-12-15. Bailey Barco's exemplary courage, fortitude and initiative in this valiant rescue reflected the highest honor upon himself and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Life-Saving Service. For extreme and heroic action, Barco was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal on Oct. 7, 1901.
9. . US Coast Guard. 2014-02-27. Archived from the original on 2014-09-26. Retrieved 2016-12-15. The Coast Guard recently announced the names of 10 Sentinel-Class Fast Response Cutters (WPCs 1116-1125) through a series of posts on its official blog, the Coast Guard Compass. Like the first 15 ships in the class, each ship will honor a Coast Guard enlisted hero.

 

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