MSU grad commands new FRC

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Lt. Lennie R. Day, a 2004 Mississippi State University mathematics graduate and former Bulldog football player from 2000-03, assisted in the commissioning of the Coast Guard Cutter Benjamin Bottoms in mid-May, and became the first commanding officer of the service’s 32nd Fast Response Cutter. Day, a native of Mobile, Ala., was a four-year letter-winner at MSU. The Benjamin Bottoms, a 154-foot multi-mission ship, is the last of four Fast Response Cutters to be homeported at CG Base Los Angeles-Long Beach. The ship is based in San Pedro, Calif., but will operate throughout the 11th Coast Guard District, which includes all of California and international waters off Mexico and Central America. The FRC was built by Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, La., and delivered to the CG in February. The ship honors the Georgia native who was part of a CG aircrew that rescued an Army aircrew from a downed B-17 off the west coast of Greenland in 1942. Bottoms was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his role in the rescue. (Source: MSU 06/05/19)