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June 18, 2010

By Bill Sizemore
The Virginian-Pilot
© June 17, 2010

The Coast Guard cutter Tampa is scheduled to return to Portsmouth at 2 p.m. from a two-month cruise.

Crew size: 100 Coast Guardsmen

Leader: Cmdr. Mark Gordon

Location of deployment: Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico

Deployed: Late April

Returning: Today

Highlights: The Portsmouth-based cutter Tampa helped disrupt the illegal drug trade in the Caribbean Sea in a joint operation with Panamanian authorities, a Dutch warship and a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment.

A dockside boarding of one suspect vessel yielded 750 pounds of cocaine with an estimated street value of $10 million.

The Tampa also responded to the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill, serving as a command and control platform in the vicinity of Pensacola and Mobile Bay. The crew searched for recoverable oil, directed clean-up operations, enforced closure of fisheries and conducted a medical evacuation.