training and professional exchange in various countries in the Mediterranean, the Adriatic Sea, and the Black Sea. Dallas worked with the navies, coast guards, and maritime agencies of Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Slovenia, Albania, and Italy. This marked the first time that a U.S. Coast Guard cutter operated with the U.S. Sixth Fleet and also entered the Black Sea. Dallas earned the Armed Forces Service Medal for her contributions to Operations Deny Flight, Maritime Monitor, and Sharp Guard. During 1997 and 1998, Dallas served as the flagship for Operations Frontier Shield and Frontier Lance, the largest interagency, international counter-narcotic operations in the Caribbean to date. In the summer of 1999, Dallas was again assigned to the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean and Black Seas to support allied forces during the conflict in Kosovo. While en route, the conflict ended, but Dallas was ordered to remain in theater to conduct training and professional exchanges with US Naval units and foreign naval forces. Dallas became the first Coast Guard cutter to enter the ports of Haifa, Israel, and Antalya, Turkey, and she conducted training exercises with the Ukrainian Navy, Turkish Coast Guard, Georgian Navy, and the armed forces of Malta. During the entire 1990-2000 decade Dallas held the Commander of the Atlantic Area’s Operational Readiness Award for sustained excellence in all Coast Guard warfare mission areas. 2000s Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on New York and Virginia, Dallas was deployed as part of Operation Noble Eagle off the coast of the southeastern United States. Her mission was to interrogate and board vessels entering US waterways. This marked a change in the Coast Guard’s operations as an emphasis on homeland security preceded Dallass previous missions of drug interdiction and operations with the U.S. Navy overseas. During the summer of 2002, Dallas took part in a new approach to maritime drug interdiction. Deployed alongside Gallatin, the only other 378-foot cutter on the East Coast, Dallas took part in Operation New Frontier. Operation New Frontier utilized armed helicopters from the Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) to stop small high-speed vessels ("go-fasts") before they could reach their destination. In 2003, Dallas was assigned to the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Dallas initially provided armed escorts through the Straits of Gibraltar and conducted boardings of vessels leaving the Suez Canal, as the Iraqis retreated. Dallas