The US Coast Guard has decommissioned two of its Island-class patrol boats currently forward-deployed in Bahrain.
USCGC Aquidneck and USCGC Adak have both completed more than 30 years of active coast guard service and being replaced by the newer Sentinel-class fast response cutters (FRCs).
Aquidneck's namesake comes from Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island. It was originally homeported in Portsmouth, Virginia, and later shifted to Fort Macon, North Carolina.
Aquidneck was employed in search and rescue, counter-drug, and other law enforcement operations domestically for more than 16 years.
Adak's namesake comes from Adak Island in Alaska. It was originally stationed in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, in 1991 and laid claim to the third-largest cocaine bust in Coast Guard history when the crew stopped a fishing vessel off the coast of New York.
In August 1994, Adak took part in Operation Able Vigil, which rescued over 29,000 Cuban migrants from unsafe rafts and makeshift craft attempting to reach American shores. The operation consisted of over 50 coast guard cutters and US Navy ships, making it the largest coast guard-led naval operation since World War II.
In late 2002, Aquidneck and Adak received orders to the US Fifth Fleet area of operations supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Within one week of their arrival in Bahrain, they were underway conducting maritime interdiction operations in the North Arabian Gulf.
For the next 18 years, the two cutters remained forward deployed out of Bahrain under US Patrol Forces Southwest Asia, attached to Commander, Task Force 55, conducting operations to ensure the free flow of commerce throughout the region's critical waterways.
