The Coast Guard will commission the new Fast Response Cutter Vincent Danz May 22 in New York City, recognizing a New York Police Department officer and Coast Guard reservist who lost his life while attempting to rescue victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center.
Each cutter in the 154’ Sentinel class is named for an enlisted “Coast Guard hero who performed extraordinary service in the line of duty,” Coast Guard officials said Wednesday. Danz was a a veteran of the Marine Corps, a New York Police Department officer and a Port Security Specialist Second Class in the United States Coast Guard Reserve who drilled at Sector New York.
The Vincent Danz will be the fourth FRC homeported in Guam. Adm. Thomas G. Allan Jr., the Coast Guard vice commandant, will preside at the Friday commissioning at 10 a.m., located at the Intrepid Museum and Pier 86 located in Hudson River Park at 46th St. and 12th Ave. in Manhattan. The event will be and streamed online on the Coast Guard’s @uscgnortheast Facebook page.
“After impact of the second plane into the South Tower, the building unexpectedly collapsed due to the intensity of the fire caused by the jet crash the North Tower collapsed a short time later. Seventy-one law enforcement officers, 343 members of the New York City Fire Department and over 2,800 civilians were killed at the World Trade Center. Due to the quick actions of New York’s first responders, it is believed that over 25,000 civilians were saved.”
Danz died while trying to rescue trapped victims. He had joined the NYPD after serving in the Marines and by September 2001 had been an officer for 14 years, starting on bicycle patrol before joining NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit and assigned to ESU Truck Number 3.
In June 2021 the Coast Guard dedicated Coast Guard Sector New York’s unaccompanied personnel housing facility in honor of Danz.
In November 2019, the Coast Guard announced that two new Sentinel-Class cutters would be named after Danz and fellow Coast Guard reservist Petty Officer 1st Class Jeffrey Palazzo, who lost his life on 9/11 as a member of the New York Fire Department. The then-Coast Guard commandant Adm. Karl Schultz, made the announcement at Battery Park flanked by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill.
