The U.S. Coast Guard will commission the Fast Response Cutter Jeffrey Palazzo in New York on Sept. 11, the 25th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, honoring a Coast Guardsman killed during the evacuation of lower Manhattan.
Petty Officer Jeffrey Palazzo died on Sept. 11, 2001, while helping to evacuate civilians in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. The Coast Guard played a central role in the largest maritime evacuation in U.S. history that day, moving approximately 500,000 people from lower Manhattan by boat.
The FRC Jeffrey Palazzo is a 154-foot patrol vessel used for maritime law enforcement, search and rescue and national security missions, the Coast Guard said. The commissioning ceremony in New York connects the vessel’s future service to the legacy of sacrifice it honors.
The 25th anniversary milestone is receiving significant national commemoration attention, and the commissioning ceremony places the Coast Guard’s ongoing mission in the context of its response a quarter century ago.
For New Yorkers and all Americans who remember Sept. 11, the ceremony serves as a reminder of the Coast Guard’s role in the crisis response, a contribution that is sometimes overshadowed by the better-known stories of firefighters, police officers and emergency medical personnel who responded that day.
Fast Response Cutters are the newest class of patrol vessels in the Coast Guard fleet and operate across a range of missions including drug interdiction, migrant operations, fisheries enforcement and port security.
The vessel will join the Coast Guard’s operational fleet after commissioning, carrying the name of a fallen service member into future missions protecting American waters and coastlines.
The 25th anniversary marks a generational milestone. Many of the Coast Guard personnel who will crew the Jeffrey Palazzo were born after Sept. 11, 2001, making the vessel’s name a bridge between the service’s history and its future.