Clearwater keeps Coast Guard city designation

CLEARWATER — Clearwater was redesignated as a Coast Guard City last week and remains one of just 21 cities in the U.S. with the distinction.

The city was first designated in 2011. The endorsement by Congress and the Coast Guard recognizes "the outstanding support the community provides to Coast Guard personnel and their families," according to a news release.

The U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, which is actually in an unincorporated area near Largo, is the busiest air station in the Coast Guard. Its area of operations includes the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean basin and the Bahamas.

It maintains deployed MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter air crews for Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos, a joint operation with the Drug Enforcement Agency and Coast Guard to halt drug and migrant smuggling operations in the Bahamas.

The U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater also deploys HC-130 Hercules fixed-wing air crews in support of Joint Interagency Task Force South operations in the Caribbean and Central America. This is done while also maintaining a round-the-clock search and rescue operation in Florida.