Coast Guard welcomes its newest, state-of-the-art cutter to Hawaii

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Fresh off two major drug busts, the Coast Guard’s newest cutter in Hawaii sailed into its home port for the first time Friday.

Three weeks ago, the Midgett seized more than 4,600 pounds of cocaine while enroute to the islands. That came a week after it intercepted another 2,100 pounds of cocaine.

At nearly 420 feet long, the state-of-the-art vessel is stationed in Hawaii to conduct national defense support, intelligence gathering, search and rescue missions and drug busts across the Pacific.

“It can really go anywhere and do anything and that’s really the difference. And then, it also has a lot more of the modern technology and modern equipment on it," said Capt. Alan McCabe.

He said the drug busts were seizures from specialized smuggling vessels.

“These are low-profile vessels ― vessels that are specifically built to carry drugs," McCabe said.

"They are built to carry a large load and they’re meant to be super low to the water so they’re hard to detect with ships’ radars.”

The Coast Guard held a blessing Friday for the Midgett and its crew, who had been at sea and away from their families for more than five months.

“I’m ecstatic. It’s been a long patrol. They’ve been gone since March," said Ivonne Ontiveros-Lopez, whose husband is a crew member.

“It’s a wonderful feeling being able to see them ride the ship in.”

Added Jessica Ferguson, whose husband also is a crew member: “We’re so happy to have them back and so proud of them and they’ve done so much already."

The Midgett, named after a famous family of Coast Guard servicemen, will be joined at the Coast Guard’s Sand Island base by another new cutter ― the Kimball.

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