LIHUE — We couldn’t get any of these things done except for their help, said Jonette Chung, adjutant for the Kauai Veterans Council on Saturday. About 40 crew members of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton paid a visit to
LIHUE — We couldn’t get any of these things done except for their help, said Jonette Chung, adjutant for the Kauai Veterans Council on Saturday.
About 40 crew members of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton paid a visit to the Kauai Veterans Center to pitch in and do a variety of tasks needing attention.
“It’s traditional that the crew of a USCG Cutter do a volunteer project when they call on a port,” said Jim Jung, a USCG Veteran and chaplain of the American Legion, Kauai. “But we’re taking care of them. I got several cases of beverages and a whole lot of Chinese food from Garden Island Bar-B-Que for our pau hana.”
The USCG Stratton pulled into Nawiliwili Harbor Friday evening where the crew were met by Nawiliwili Harbormaster Bob Crowell, Norberto Garcia, the commandant of the Kauai Veterans Council, Aida Cruz of the Kauai Veterans Center, Jung, and Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.
“While touring the ship, I discovered the work crew had no transportation for their volunteer project,” Carvalho said. “That didn’t do. I got the Kauai Bus to pick up the crew and take them to the Kauai Veterans Center.”
Capt. Charles Cashin, commanding officer of the Stratton, said the work detail was spearheaded by Petty Officer Thomas Stilwell who presented a life ring from the cutter to the Kauai Veterans Council for inclusion in the Veterans Museum.
Aboard the Stratton, Bryan Goff said he served at the USCG Nawiliwili Moorings aboard the USCG Cutter Point Evans in 1998, and this trip was a homecoming.
“When I got here for duty aboard the Point Evans, it was my first assignment,” Goff said. “I was here for 19 months and enjoyed every moment of it.”
Goss said the Stratton, based out of Alameda, Calif., is in Hawaii for training after being commissioned in 2010 and completing her sea trials in 2011.
The Stratton’s primary missions include law enforcement, search and rescue, defense operations, and homeland security, states the USCG website.
With a crew capacity of 109 to 143, depending on mission, the Stratton arrived with 160 crew, a bit more than normal, Goff said.
The ship measures 418 feet with a draft of 22.5 feet and a displacement of 4,500 long tons, Jung describing the ship as a National Security Cutter.
Capt. Stratton, for whom the ship is named, was the first woman to be accepted for service in the Women’s Reserve of the Coast Guard shortly after President Franklin Roosevelt signed an amendment to Public Law 773 which created a women’s reserve program for the nation’s oldest continuous-going sea service.
One of her first contributions to the Coast Guard was creating the name SPAR for the Women’s Reserve, the root being discovered in the first letters of the Coast Guard’s motto, “Semper Paratus,” and its English translation, “Always Ready.”
“The initials of the Coast Guard’s motto are, SPAR,” Stratton wrote in a memo to Vice Admiral Russell Waesche. “Why not call the members of the Women Reserve SPARs? As I understand it, a spar is a supporting beam, and that is what we hope each member of the Women’s Reserve will be.”
