ash plum skyward, but an evacuation was not needed. 1980s In 1980, Dallas was the command ship for the historic Mariel Boatlift, during which 125,000 Cuban refugees set sail for the shores of Florida. At the time, it was the largest humanitarian operation ever undertaken by the Coast Guard. In 1983, the Dallas earned a Coast Guard Unit Commendation for achievements that included the seizure of seven vessels smuggling over of marijuana and the interdiction of 90 illegal Haitian migrants. In 1986, Dallas served as the on-scene command for the search and rescue operation following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. For her service during this operation, Dallas received the Coast Guard’s Meritorious Unit Commendation. In the late 1980s, Dallas underwent a fleet rehabilitation and modernization (FRAM) program in the Bath Iron Works shipyard at Portland, Maine. During that period, her living quarters, electronics, sensors, and weapons systems were upgraded to allow continued service beyond the year 2000. Dallas was recommissioned by the "cross-decked" crew from on December 20, 1989. 1990s During the Haitian migrant crisis of 1991-92, Dallas performed as the flagship of a flotilla of twenty-seven Coast Guard cutters that rescued 35,000 migrants from hundreds of overcrowded, unseaworthy vessels. Dallas received a Humanitarian Service Medal and another Coast Guard Unit Commendation for her efforts in establishing an operation task organization that serves as the model for today’s Coast Guard multi-unit operation. In response to the renewed threats of a mass exodus from Haiti, Operation Able Manner began in January 1993, with large numbers of Coast Guard and U.S. Navy ships and aircraft deploying to the Caribbean. Dallas assumed command of this flotilla on three separate patrols in 1993, earning her yet another Coast Guard Unit Commendation. Dallas spent the summer of 1994 representing the Coast Guard in France at the 50th D-Day invasion anniversary. During those festivities, Dallas steamed with the reenactment fleet to commemorate the event. Soon after the D-Day celebration, Dallas was called upon to be the flagship for the Operation Able Vigil in response to another mass exodus from Cuba. Able Vigil was the largest Coast Guard commanded, but multi-service, operation since the 1940s. During the summer of 1995, Dallas operated with the United States Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. Among her many assignments, Dallas worked with the Battle Group in support of Operation Deny Flight off the coast of Yugoslavia. Dallass crew conducted nation-building