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Coast Guard cadets from Fayette spend summer at sea

Two Fayette County High School graduates will be spending an adventurous summer at sea aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle, the Coast Guard Academy’s historic three-masted barque training ship, and two other Coast Guard cutters.

Joel Kurucar was promoted to third class cadet May 18. A 2004 graduate of Fayette County High School, he is majoring in operational engineering at the Academy. He is the son of Mickie Kurucar of Fayetteville.

Bruce Jeffries is a 2004 graduate of Fayette County High School and is majoring in marine science at the Academy, where he is on the Sailing Team and the Bowling Team. He was on the Dean’s List for First Semester. His parents are Jeff and Vickie Jeffries of Fayetteville.

The cadet summer training programs, scheduled from May 7 to Aug. 14, offer academic enrichment for third-class and first-class cadets.

Both cadets will be aboard America’s tall ship Barque Eagle for five weeks of the summer program.  Eagle’s schedule includes port calls to European cities in Scotland, England, Ireland, France and Portugal. Eagle will participate in a Tall Ships race and a historic naval reenactment while in Europe. For more information, photos and to read the ship’s journal, visit www.cga.edu/eagle/eagle.htm.

Summer training for Kurucar will also include assignment to the Cutter Mohawk, a 270-foot “Famous” class cutter. Missions include Search and Rescue, Maritime Law Enforcement, and Alien Migrant Interdiction Operations. The Cutter Mohawk has earned two Unit Commendations, the Joint Meritorious Service Award and two Humanitarian Service Awards.

Summer training for Jeffries will also include assignment to the Cutter Confidence a 210 foot Medium Endurance Cutter, homeported at USCG Station Port Canaveral, Fla. The ship sails for approximately one month at a time and will pull in to exciting Caribbean locations such as Puerto Rice, Jamaica, Virgin Island and the Bahamas, where the primary missions are Search and Rescue, Law Enforcement, Homeland Security and Alien Migration Interdiction operations.

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy, one of the nation’s four military service academies, is located on the west bank of the Thames River in New London, Conn. Each year, the Coast Guard Academy graduates nearly 200 newly commissioned ensigns and hundreds of officer candidates to lead the smallest of all the military services. U.S. News and World Report magazine ranks the Academy among the top ten Undergraduate Engineering Programs in the nation. For more information about the Academy, visit www.cga.edu.