PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — US Coast Guard Cutter Bear is coming back home.

The crew of USCGC Bear (WMEC 901) is scheduled to return to their homeport in Portsmouth Wednesday.

The crews returns following a 60-day patrol conducting migrant interdiction operations in the Florida Straits and Windward Passage, which included the interdiction, care, and repatriation of over 500 migrants at sea.

Cutter Bear is a 270-foot, medium endurance cutter and was commissioned in 1983. Bear has had over 65 operational deployments, numerous major drug seizures, and countless search and rescue operations, including combing over 1,900 square nautical miles of ocean in response to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

USCGC BEAR takes its name from Revenue Cutter BEAR, which was commissioned in 1874. The original BEAR served in both World Wars, and made history by leading the famous “Overland Expedition” to rescue whalers trapped at Barrow Point.