living marine resources patrols. During this time Adak issued eleven Magnuson Fishery Conservation Act violations, five of those resulting in catch seizures that, together, totalled over $160,000. After the attacks on the World Trade Center towers on September 11th, 2001, the Coast Guard tug , homeported in Bayonne, New Jersey, was the first on scene in New York harbor and acted as On-Scene Commander. Adak arrived on scene an hour later and took over On-Scene Commander responsibilities. For hours Adak coordinated the evacuation of civilians, transport of firefighters and rescue personnel, and the establishment of security zones to protect other high valued assets from further attack. For her part in the response to the attacks of September 11th, Adak received the Secretary of Transportation Outstanding Unit Award. Operation Iraqi Freedom The maritime conditions of Iraq and the Northern Persian Gulf can greatly limit the operations of large naval vessels and warships. Due to this and the Navy's lack of in-shore patrol craft, a large part of the US Navy's request for Coast Guard assistance in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) centered on the service's shallow-draft patrol boats. Cutters of the 110-foot Island class, also known as WPBs, would serve as the mainstay of shallow-water operations. The deployment of the 110-foot patrol boat Adak serves as a snapshot of WPB operations in OIF. Deployment of the WPBs overseas would represent the first combat deployment of Coast Guard patrol boats since the Vietnam War, even though other Coast Guard assets had served in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the 1990s. In early February 2003, the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area Command deployed to the Persian Gulf the WPBs Adak, , , and . The 110s arrived in Bahrain, at the beginning of March, having ridden on board for thirty-five days. On March 5th, a heavy-lift crane off-loaded the WPBs taking only six hours to set all four in the water. Adak ran through sea trials for two days and on 9 March, Adak and sister ship Aquidneck deployed to the Persian Gulf followed by Baranof and Wrangell on March 12th. In the days leading up to combat operations, Adak focused on maritime interdiction operations. Coalition vessels had restricted passage of local watercraft out of the Khawr Abd Allah (KAA) Waterway, thinking that these vessels might carry mines or escaping Iraqi officials. By mid-March, local watercraft had attempted several breakouts with fleets of