Political Quotes

“today at a 10 a.m. the U.S. Coast Guard will decommission the Cutter Acacia in a ceremony in Charlevoix, MI. The Acacia's keel was laid in 1942 in Duluth MN, and was commissioned on September 1, 1944. The cutter is named after the original Acacia, a U.S. Lighthouse Service vessel sunk off the coast of British West Indies by a German U-boat on March 17, 1942. The Acacia is the last of the Coast Guard's 180-foot World War II era buoy tenders still in service and has called Charlevoix, MI, home since 1990. The Acacia has served as a buoy tender on the Great Lakes for 62 years and its area of responsibility extends from Chicago at the south end of Lake Michigan to Alpena on Lake Huron. The cutter's primary mission is maintaining aids to navigation but has also performed search and rescue missions, as well as providing icebreaking assistance during the winter. The Acacia, also know as ``The Big A'' or ``Ace of the Great Lakes'' has performed an unheralded but vital mission in the Great Lakes for more than six decades. I commend the Acacia crew both past and present for their tireless service to maintain the Great Lakes navigational aids. Each fall the Acacia and its crew begin a race against the Lakes brutal winter weather when they set out to remove buoys in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. These buoys can weigh over 18 tons and are covered in ice.…”