JANUARY 16, 2025 – Coast Guard Cutter Alex Haley (WMEC 39) was selected as the recipient of the 2024 Hopley Yeaton Cutter Excellence Award.
For the second year in a row, Alex Haley earned the medium cutter of year award across the entire Coast Guard fleet. The Hopley Yeaton Cutter Excellence Award recognizes the ship that demonstrated exceptional performance across operations and mission accomplishment, commitment to crew and families, training and readiness, and engineering.
Spending nearly 200 days deployed in support of Coast Guard Pacific Area and District 17, Alex Haley embodied the proud tradition of the Bering Sea cutter, sailing from the Arctic Ocean to the furthest reaches of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.
Leading all cutters in Bering Sea and Aleutian Island living marine resource law enforcement boardings to protect and help sustain Alaska fisheries, the ship also supported strategic United States Government priorities including intercepting and escorting a Russian warship across the Aleutian Islands.
Most notably, the cutter and crew earned a Letter of Commendation from the International Maritime Organization for bravery saving eight mariners in distress while towing a fishing vessel 32 hours to safe harbor during a winter gale.
Additionally, Alex Haley earned the 2024 Large Afloat Dining Facility of the Year award for best galley and was runner up for the 2024 Morale Program of the Year Award. The Alex Haley crew was awarded the Arctic Service Medal and the Operational Excellence “E” Award.
“As the only major cutter homeported in Alaska, the ‘Bulldog of the Bering’ lives and operates in unforgiving conditions across a vast area of responsibility,” said Cmdr. Steven Baldovsky, Alex Haley ‘s commanding officer. “Our crew displayed exceptional mission execution and resilience against a challenging work-life balance – always answering the call and providing an incredible return on investment to the American people. I could not be any prouder of the crew and our amazing family support for the work Alex Haley did to earn the back-to-back Hopley Yeaton Cutter Excellence Awards.”
Alex Haley is a 282-foot Medium Endurance Cutter that performs search and rescue, fisheries law enforcement and maritime security across Alaska and has been homeported in Kodiak since 1999.