[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 10345]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     COAST GUARD CUTTER ``ACACIA''

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, 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. 
Pulling buoys out of the frigid and unpredictable Great Lakes in 
October, November and December is back breaking work in rough seas and 
sub zero weather. However, it is crucial to keep these waterways open 
for commercial shipping as long as possible before the ice closes the 
shipping lanes and grinds any buoys left behind into scrap metal.
  Mr. President, the Acacia and her crew have served the Great Lakes 
faithfully since the 1940s and we will miss her fondly.

                          ____________________