1980s
1981 Chase Paticipated in the Mariel Boatlift Rescuing Cuban civilians in district 7 all crew received humanitarian Medals From October 1983 to July 1984, Chase served in Operation Urgent Fury, the U.S. invasion of Grenada. For her service Chase received the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. Until March 1988 Chase continued to display her versatility in performing all Coast Guard missions. Chase repatriated more than 338 migrants during its Haitian Migration Interdiction Oerations (HMIO) between the January 1985 and March 1988 and also conducted many drug interdiction operations.
An engine room fire on May 8, 1985, killed one crewman and disabled the cutter as it was traveling 70 miles southeast of Cape Cod. MK3 (3d class machinist technician) Nicholas V. Berei, 22, of Philadelphia was killed. A Coast Guard helicopter removed the crewman's body to a Cape Cod funeral home and the cutter Chilula (WMEC 153) was sent to tow the disabled cutter to Boston.
In 1989, Chase was temporarily decommissioned and entered Bath Ironworks Shipyard in Portland, Maine, to undergo the Fleet Renovation and Modernization (FRAM) program. At Bath, Chase was virtually torn apart and reassembled with substantial improvements to many of her systems. Approximately seventy five percent of the shipboard electronics were changed or modified; a third of the existing engineering systems were overhauled or replaced; and major internal space reconfigurations improved the crew’s living conditions.
Read more about this topic: USCGC Chase (WHEC-718)