June 27, 2025 —
The Coast Guard’s 60th fast response cutter, Frederick Mann, at its mooring in Key West, Florida, on June 26, 2025. U.S. Coast Guard photo.
The Coast Guard accepted delivery of the 60th fast response cutter (FRC), Frederick Mann, on June 26 in Key West, Florida. Upon commissioning, Frederick Mann will be the third of three FRCs to be homeported in Kodiak, Alaska.
The Sentinel-class FRCs replaced the 1980s Island-class 110-foot patrol boats and possess 21st century command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment, with improved habitability and seakeeping. A total of 67 FRCs have been ordered to date to perform a multitude of missions that include drug and alien interdiction, joint international operations and national defense of ports, waterways and coastal areas.
Each FRC is named after an enlisted Coast Guard hero who performed extraordinary service in the line of duty. Frederick “Fred” Dean Mann was a decorated Coast Guard World War II hero who received the Presidential Unit Citation from Franklin D. Roosevelt, along with the Silver Star and Purple Heart.
As part of the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942, Mann led efforts to extinguish a fire on USS George F. Elliott, a Navy vessel to which he was assigned. The vessel took a direct hit from a Japanese bomber that crashed on its deck, with its spilled fuel igniting a massive fire. Mann brought a fire hose to pump water into a nearby troop ammunition magazine compartment. Suffering from a lack of oxygen and smoke inhalation and faced with super-heated bulkheads, Mann returned to the compartment to ensure the hose continued to douse the fire and fill the compartment with water. His actions prevented catastrophic damage and loss of life that would have occurred if the ammunition had detonated. Mann’s efforts enabled the crew and troops to evacuate the vessel before it ultimately sank.
Mann returned stateside following the conclusion of the war and served at numerous shore duty stations during his 31-year career in the Coast Guard. He passed away in 2017 at the age of 98.
FRCs operate in a wide variety of areas, including critical maritime border zones, to support law enforcement and alien interdiction operations. Fifty-eight FRCs are in service: 13 in Florida; seven in Puerto Rico; six each in Bahrain and Massachusetts; four each in California and Alaska; three each in Guam, Hawaii, Texas and New Jersey; and two each in Mississippi, North Carolina and Oregon.
Frederick Mann, dockside in Key West, Florida. U.S. Coast Guard photo.
For more information: Fast Response Cutter Program page