U.S. Coast Guard Names Two Cutters After 9/11 Heroes

The U.S. Coast Guard announced Monday that two new Fast Response Cutters (FRCs) will be named in honor of Coast Guard reservists who served in the New York City Police Department and New York City Fire Department and lost their lives responding on 9/11.

Adm. Karl Schultz, Coast Guard Commandant, is scheduled to announce Tuesday that the new cutters will be named in honor of Port Security Specialist 2nd Class Vincent Danz and Machinery Technician 1st Class Jeffrey Palazzo. 

Danz served as a Coast Guard reservist as well as an NYPD officer at the Emergency Services Unit in the Bronx. He responded on 9/11 to aid victims and lost his life when the World Trade Center collapsed.

Palazzo served as a Coast Guard reservist and an FDNY firefighter at Rescue 5 in Staten Island. He also lost his life assisting others at the scene of the attacks on 9/11. 

The new cutters named in honor of Danz and Palazzo are scheduled for delivery starting in 2023. FRCs, built by Bollinger to a Damen design, are the service's primary coastal patrol vessels; they are gradually replacing the aging 1980s-era Island class cutters. Roughly half of the 64-vessel order has been delivered to date. 

The Coast Guard played a key role in the disaster response effort after the attacks on the World Trade Center. The USCG organized an improvised boatlift that rescued thousands of people from lower Manhattan in the aftermath of the attacks. Five cutters, 12 Coast Guard patrol boats and over 100 civilian vessels carried survivors from the water's edge near Wall Street. Trains and bridges in the area were shut down after the attack, and mariners and coastguardsmen were a crucial part of the response.