Coast Guard commissions cutter named after 9/11 hero

The Coast Guard commissioned Fast Response Cutter Vincent Danz on Friday in New York, named for a New York police officer and Coast Guard reservist who died at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

USCGC Vincent Danz is the 62nd Fast Response Cutter.

“Vincent Danz’s legacy will live on not only through his family and his brothers and sisters in the NYPD, but through the Coast Guard crew who will breathe life into this cutter,” Vice Adm. Thomas Allan, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, said in a service news release. “The Coast Guard Cutter Vincent Danz will perform the Coast Guard’s vital work across Oceania — projecting U.S. presence, countering illicit maritime activity and strengthening our international partnerships.”

Members of the family, including Angela Donohue, Danz’s widow, were on hand for the ceremony.

Danz responded to the World Trade Center as part of a massive emergency response and was killed when the building collapsed. He was posthumously awarded the New York City Police Department’s Medal of Honor. He was a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and joined the New York City Police Department in 1987 while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve as a Port Security Specialist 2nd Class.

Fast Response Cutters feature advanced command, control and communications systems; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment; and over-the-horizon cutter boat deployment capability, the service said.

The 154-foot-long, Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutters were first introduced in 2012 as a larger, faster successor to the 110-foot Island class patrol boat. The ships displace 353 long tons, have a top speed of over 28 knots and a range of 2,500 miles. They carry a crew of four officers and 20 enlisted personnel.