June 11, 2026 —
The Coast Guard accepted delivery of the 63rd fast response cutter (FRC), Jeffrey Palazzo, on June 11 in Key West, Florida. Following its commissioning later this year, Jeffrey Palazzo will be the fifth FRC to be homeported in Apra Harbor, Guam.
Each FRC is named after an enlisted Coast Guard hero who performed extraordinary service in the line of duty. Petty Officer 1st Class Jeffrey Palazzo, a Coast Guard reservist and a firefighter in the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), died trying to save others after the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
Palazzo was a member of the FDNY Rescue Squad 5 and one of 343 firefighters who lost their lives responding to the attacks. Prior to joining the FDNY, Palazzo served eight years of active duty in the Coast Guard. During his time in the Coast Guard, he served as a machinery technician aboard Coast Guard Cutter Cape Horn and at Station Chatham, where he qualified as a 47-foot motor lifeboat crewmember.
As a reservist, he responded to many large-scale emergencies, including the sinking of the Bronx Queen in the winter of 1989. Palazzo and his fellow crewmembers saved 17 passengers from the sinking ship.
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