May 29, 2026 —
The Coast Guard commissioned its latest fast response cutter (FRC), Coast Guard Cutter Vincent Danz, on May 22 in New York City. Vincent Danz will be the fourth FRC to be homeported in Apra Harbor, Guam.
Adm. Tom Allan, vice commandant of the Coast Guard, presided over the event. Members of the Danz family were also in attendance including the cutter's sponsor, Angela Donohue, widow of the late Vincent Danz.
The Sentinel-class FRCs replaced the 1980s-era Island-class 110-foot patrol boats. The FRCs possess state-of-the-art command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment, with improved habitability and seakeeping. Seventy-seven FRCs have been ordered to date.
Each FRC is named after an enlisted Coast Guard hero who performed extraordinary service in the line of duty. Petty Officer 2nd Class Vincent Danz, a Coast Guard reservist and port security specialist and an officer in the New York Police Department (NYPD), was killed while rescuing victims after the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Danz joined the NYPD after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and spent 14 years on the force, eventually serving in the Emergency Service Unit.
Danz was posthumously awarded the NYPD Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during 9/11. President George W. Bush awarded all the public safety officers killed during the attack the 9/11 Heroes Medal of Valor on Sept. 9, 2005. In June 2021, the Coast Guard dedicated Coast Guard Sector New York’s unaccompanied personnel housing facility in honor of Danz.
FRCs operate in a wide variety of areas, including critical maritime border zones, and conduct drug and alien interdictions, joint international operations and national defense of ports, waterways and coastal areas as well as search and rescue and fishery patrols. As an example of the vital tasks and accomplishments of FRCs, the crew of Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Napier, operating under the Caribbean Corridor Strike Force, interdicted approximately 725 pounds of cocaine in April 2025. The seized contraband, valued at an estimated $5.4 million, was intercepted in international waters north of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
Sixty-two FRCs are in service: 13 in Florida; seven in Puerto Rico; six each in Alaska, Bahrain and Massachusetts; four each in California and Guam; three each in Hawaii, Texas, New Jersey and Mississippi; and two each in North Carolina and Oregon.
For more information: Fast Response Cutter Program page