Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf returned to their homeport in Alameda, California
One of the large Coast Guard vessels built in 2005 to update and improve the service.
On 25 March 2019, USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54), in concert with Bertholf transited the contested Taiwan Strait. On 15 April of same year, the ship visited Hong Kong, the first Coast Guard vessel to do so in seventeen years.
"In this particular mission set, we brought in decades of expertise in countering smuggling at sea," Driscoll said. " ... It's a piece that the administration and the [Defense Department] can use to reassure allies that we can stop things going in [to North Korea]."
Bertholf returned July 2 from the Coast Guard's first full-length deployment to the Western Pacific in seven years. Driscoll said the Legend-class Cutter Waesche, also out of Alameda, California, was the last to complete a comparable pump to the region. Since that previous deployment, tensions between the U.S. and China have become more pronounced in the region. Of the three mission sets Bertholf, under the authority of the U.S. 7th Fleet, accomplished on the deployment, all were done to communicate a clear message to China, and with a wary eye on the country's reaction and response.
Much more @ Coast Guard Cutter Holds Line on China During Rare Pacific Deployment
