United States Coast Guard Cushing was commissioned on
Coast Guard Day, 4 August 1988, named after
Cushing Island, located near
Portland, Maine. Throughout her service life, she would partake in a number of humanitarian and military operations.
Cushing primarily supported the United States Coast Guard's search and rescue, law enforcement, living marine resources, and counter drug and illegal migrant missions in the
Gulf of Mexico,
Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic.
Cushing was homeported in Alabama, Puerto Rico, and North Carolina during her Coast Guard service.
Cushing was involved in
Operation Uphold Democracy, the American backed military intervention in Haiti following the
1991 Haitian coup d'état. In 1994,
Cushing was among the 55 Coast Guard cutters operating in support of Operation Able Manner and Operation Able Vigil. These patrols consisted of border security operations, and resulted in the rescue and repatriation of over 63,000 Haitian and Cuban migrants. This was the largest United States Coast Guard operation since the
Vietnam War.
Cushing was later transferred to Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, where her primary focus was fisheries and marine law enforcement, as well as search and rescue. On 8 March 2017
Cushing was decommissioned along with USCGC
Nantucket in North Carolina. Two s replaced both cutters the following year.
Cushing was laid up in the
Coast Guard Yard near
Baltimore, Maryland.
Ukrainian Naval Forces In September 2018, Ukraine was selected to receive the
Cushing, as well as her sister ship
Drummond through the United States Navy International Programs Office, as part of military aid to the country. The Island-class patrol boat was the first major commissioned ship built in the
United States operated by the Ukrainian Navy, which up to this point was composed largely of ships inherited from the breakup of the
Soviet Black Sea Fleet into the
Russian Black Sea Fleet and the
Ukrainian Navy. As a result, the two ships were brought out of storage, and received maintenance and equipment upgrades.
Cushing and
Drummond were transported to the Black Sea port city of
Odesa aboard the
Ocean Freedom dry cargo ship, arriving on 21 October 2019. In Ukrainian service,
Cushing was renamed to
Sloviansk, in memory of the home town of sailors Roman Napriagila and Sergiy Mayboroda and was subordinate to the
30th Surface Ships Division.
Sinking On 3 March 2022, during the
Russian invasion of Ukraine,
Sloviansk was conducting reconnaissance and patrol missions around the port cities of
Odesa,
Chornomorsk and Yuzhne. During this period, the vessel was reportedly sunk by a Russian
Kh-31 anti-ship missile. The fate of the crew has not been reported. == See also ==