The Coast Guard Cutter USCGC Boutwell (WHEC-719) got a chance to try out her armament in a recent exercise and you can spot a little WWII-inspired imagery on her main gun.
As part of testing the 378-foot high endurance cutter’s efficiency at completing Coast Guard wartime missions, Boutwell got off some target practice in a shoot-ex while on patrol as part of Operation Arctic Shield 2015 earlier this year.
Besides using her small boat (and boarding team with Sig P229Rs) and on-board MH65 chopper, you see footage of her 20mm CIWS, M2 .50cals and 25mm Mk38 chain guns in use as well as her hood ornament, the 76mm Mk75 naval gun– one of the last of its kind in the fleet.
And you may notice a little motion picture nod on the main gun.
Yup, the same barrel tube moniker used by the M4 Sherman “Easy Eight” tank in the 2014 film Fury with Brad Pitt. Its a pretty good reference too, as the main gun for many Shermans was in fact in the same caliber: a 76mm M1A1/A1C/A2.
The video itself is a nominee for the Coast Guard’s Top 10 videos of the year designation.
Sadly, the San Diego-based cutter, who returned from her final patrol last week, a 41-day run around the Bearing Sea, has completed her last mission for the nation.
After 47 years of hard work that included standing by the disabled Soviet H-2 nuclear-powered submarine in 1972, the Prinsendam ocean liner rescue in 1980, shelling a Japanese ghost ship under the waves with her 5-inch deck gun (back when the USCG had 5-inch guns), and spending much time on six-week long Alaska Patrols during the heart of the Cold War– often tracking multiple Soviet sonar contacts at the same time (back when the Coasties ran sonar), she is to be retired.
Boutwell is scheduled to be modified and handed over to the Philippine Navy in coming months.
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