Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater

Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater
Unit Patch
Active	1934 – present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Coast Guard
Motto(s)	Anytime, Anywhere
Engagements	World War II Cuban Missile Crisis Cold War Operation Urgent Fury Operation Desert Storm September 11, 2001 attacks
Commanders
Current commander	Captain Rich Lorenzen
Aircraft flown
Helicopter	MH-60 Jayhawk
Patrol	HC-130 Hercules

United States Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater (CGAS Clearwater) is the United States Coast Guard's largest air station. It is located at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport in Clearwater, Florida and is home to nearly 600 USCG aviation and support personnel. As of July 2015, there are thirteen (13) MH-60T Jayhawk helicopters, two HC-130H Hercules (including the Coast Guard's oldest operational HC-130) and five (5) HC-130H7 Hercules aircraft assigned to CGAS Clearwater. On display is USCG-1023, a restored Albatross.

Air Station Clearwater also operates two aviation facilities in The Bahamas, one at Great Inagua and one at the U.S. Navy's AUTEC installation at Andros Island. These facilities support continually deployed HH-60Js and MH-60Ts from various air stations for Operations Bahamas, Turks and Caicos (OPBAT), a joint U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Coast Guard anti-drug and migrant smuggling operation.

In 1934, an air station was commissioned on the west coast of Florida at Albert Whitted Airport in downtown St. Petersburg. Designated as Coast Guard Air Station St. Petersburg, it subsequently became a home base for various Coast Guard amphibious aircraft and helicopters. In 1976, the addition of four land-based HC-130 Hercules aircraft prompted the move to, and construction of, new facilities at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. With this move, the air station's name was changed to U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater.

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