By Karen Robes Meeks
After 69 days on a counterdrug deployment in the Eastern Pacific, the crew of the US Coast Guard Cutter Alert came back to Astoria this week.
Crewmembers conducted drug patrols off the Mexican coast and took part in the North American Maritime Security Initiative, a three-day exercise aimed at improving data sharing and integrating with Canadian, US and Mexican maritime forces on counterdrug operations.
“I’m proud of the hard work that our crew put into our Eastern Pacific patrol,” said Cdr. Tyson Scofield, Alert’s commanding officer. “I am especially proud of the professionalism that the crew showed during our joint exercises with the Canadian and Mexican navies. They displayed a high level of skill while demonstrating counter narcotics interdiction techniques and during the shipboard launch and recovering of a Mexican helicopter for the first time. Most importantly, our crew created personal and professional relationships with their North American peers, which will help to counter the flow of illegal narcotics into all of our countries.”
