NEW ORLEANS — The Coast Guard is scheduled to hold a memorial ceremony at the USS KIDD Veterans Museum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Saturday to honor the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter White Alder that sank 56 years ago, killing 17 Coast Guard members.
- Who: Capt. Ulysses Mullins, Chief of Staff, Eighth Coast Guard District, Capt. Gregory Callaghan, Sector Commander, Coast Guard Sector New Orleans, and members from Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Baton Rouge, Coast Guard Sector New Orleans, Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team New Orleans, and the Coast Guard Cutter Pamlico.
- What: Coast Guard Cutter White Alder memorial ceremony
- Where: USS KIDD Veterans Museum, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- When: 7 December 2024 at 11 a.m.
At approximately 18:29 CST on 7 December 1968, the “downbound” White Alder collided with the “upbound” M/V Helena, a 455-foot (139 m) Taiwanese freighter in the Mississippi River at mile 195.3 above Head of Passes near White Castle, Louisiana, and sank in 75 feet (23 m) of water. Three of the crew of 20 were rescued, while the other 17 perished. Divers recovered the bodies of three of the dead, but river sediment buried the cutter so quickly that continued recovery and salvage operations proved impractical. The Coast Guard decided to leave the remaining 14 crew members entombed in the sunken cutter, which remains buried at the bottom of the Mississippi River.
Coast Guard Cutter White Alder was homeported in New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1947 until 1968. The cutter’s primary responsibility was to tend river aids-to-navigation, although it was also called upon to conduct other traditional Coast Guard duties.
A special aids to navigation structure was built in honor of the crew and marks the location of the sunken vessel near White Castle, Louisiana. Every year on December 7, Coast Guardsmen and surviving family members gather at the site in remembrance of those who lost their lives.
