Welcome home: After 5 months, US Coast Guard Cutter Midgett reunited with families in Honolulu

The crew of the US Coast Guard Cutter Midgett returned to its home port in Honolulu on Monday after a five-month deployment across the Western Pacific, the Coast Guard reported.

The deployment included a search-and-rescue mission near the Federated States of Micronesia in which the crew located and rescued a family that had been missing at sea for seven days. The mission is a reminder of the search-and-rescue capability the Coast Guard maintains throughout the Pacific, including waters around Maui County, where the 14th Coast Guard District resources respond to mariners in distress.

Midgett, a Legend-class national security cutter commissioned in 2019, is one of two such vessels homeported in Honolulu. Its primary missions include counterdrug operations, homeland defense and general defense readiness, and it regularly patrols Pacific waters, according to the Coast Guard.

During the deployment, Midgett operated under the tactical control of the US 7th Fleet in support of what officials described as a free and open Pacific. The cutter took part in joint operations, professional exchanges and capacity-building activities with the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Japan.

Capt. Brian Whisler, the cutter’s commanding officer, credited the crew’s performance throughout the patrol. The crew’s work strengthening alliances through exercises such as Balikatan, along with the real-world rescue mission, demonstrated the Coast Guard’s adaptability, he said.

He added that engagements with allied nations improved collective readiness and supported maritime security across the region.

Among the deployment’s key events was Midgett’s participation in Exercise Balikatan 2026, in which the cutter led a search-and-rescue exercise alongside 11 multinational naval assets. The exercise was part of what the Navy’s 7th Fleet said as the largest multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity in its area of operations.

While operating in the Philippines, Midgett took part in a separate Maritime Cooperative Activity that included the first vertical replenishment conducted between US and Philippine Navy assets. The cutter’s crew also trained members of the Philippine Coast Guard ahead of that agency’s first participation in the Rim of the Pacific 2026 exercise, covering topics including division tactics, supply logistics and maritime law enforcement.

The cutter’s engagements extended to the Republic of Korea, where the crew joined the Korea Coast Guard for a multinational maritime exercise and took part in a trilateral seminar with the Japan Coast Guard on coordinated responses to complex maritime missions. In Singapore, the crew co-hosted a multinational group sail with the Republic of Singapore Navy, exchanging expertise on unmanned aircraft system operations and compliant vessel boardings.

Off the coast of Japan, Midgett joined the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and Japan Coast Guard for Pacific Atlas 26-1, an exercise the Navy described as an inaugural logistics demonstration meant to validate communications, logistics procedures and sustainment concepts supporting strategic deterrence in the Western Pacific.

Midgett was assigned during the patrol to Destroyer Squadron 15, which the Navy identifies as its largest forward-deployed destroyer squadron and the principal surface force of the 7th Fleet.