Nine months after being deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. Coast Guard Port Security Unit 313 members are back home in Everett, Wash.
During the tour, members gave over 42,000 hours of “around-the-clock waterside and shore side anti-terrorism and force protection defense security to Department of Defense assets and personnel at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay,” according to the USCG.
“Our members excelled in this joint operating environment, expanding inter-service operability and capabilities, and exceeded every established metric for accomplishing our assigned tasking,” said Cmdr. James W. Fitzgerald, PSU 313’s commanding officer. “Their devotion to duty and the support from their families at home during this deployment have been inspiring.”
PSU 313 was commissioned in 1998 to be among the eight U.S. Coast Guard port security units ready to go to lend their expertise and resources to protect valuable water assets.
Past deployments include South Korea, Kuwait and Haiti, as well as defending Naval Magazine Indian Island, which is across Puget Sound from Whidbey Island and Seattle, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks
