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Cutter Douglas Munro returns home from final patrol

The Coast Guard Cutter Douglas Munro (WHEC 724) is pictured during their last Bering Sea patrol, in which the crew conducted boarding evolutions of the fishing fleet and were available to respond to search and rescue cases in March 2021. The Douglas Munro is the last operational 378-foot Secretary class cutter and will officially be decommissioned on April 24, 2021. U.S. Coast Guard courtesy photo.
The Coast Guard Cutter Douglas Munro (WHEC 724) is pictured during their last Bering Sea patrol, in which the crew conducted boarding evolutions of the fishing fleet and were available to respond to search and rescue cases in March 2021. The Douglas Munro is the last operational 378-foot Secretary class cutter and will officially be decommissioned on April 24, 2021. U.S. Coast Guard courtesy photo.

After 49 days at sea on its final patrol, the Coast Guard Cutter Douglas Munro has returned home to Kodiak.

The Douglas Munro is the last of its kind in the Coast Guard; a 378-foot high-endurance cutter commissioned in September of 1971 and to be decommissioned later this year, according to a Coast Guard press release.

In its history, the Douglas Munro patrolled the Bering Sea waters defending Alaska’s fisheries and providing search and rescue coverage in an 890,000 square mile area with its onboard MH-65 helicopter crew.

The cutter was named after Signalman First Class Douglas A Munro, the Coast Guard’s only Medal of Honor recipient who was killed during the Guadalcanal campaign in World War II. His legacy and name will be borne onward by the National Security Class Cutter Munro, homeported in Alameda, CA.