Coast Guard cutter
heads home from Iraq
The Coast Guard cutter Walnut, a 225-foot buoy tender, is returning to its home port at Sand Island after completing a 20-day mission replacing buoys at Iraq's main port.
The Coast Guard said the Walnut replaced 30 buoys and repaired an additional five that mark the 41-mile Khor Abd Allah Waterway flowing into the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.
The ship left Honolulu in mid-January for Guam, Singapore, Kuwait and then Iraq. That trip took 42 days, said Petty Officer Erica Ryan, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.
There was no word as yet when the Walnut with its crew of 50 would be back in island waters, she added.
Initially, the Walnut was deployed to the North Arabian Gulf to combat possible deliberate oils spills caused by loyalists to the regime of Saddam Hussein.
When none occurred, the Walnut was assigned maritime interdiction duties enforcing U.N. sanctions. Later, it participated in the search for two downed British helicopters that collided, and rescued a five-member port security crew.
