Berning Productions Covers First Lady Christening of USCGC Stratton (NSC 3)

Berning Productions Covers First Lady Christening of USCGC Stratton (NSC 3)

Robert Berning Productions Inc. recently captured the christening ceremony of the latest U.S. National Security Cutter. Built by Northrop-Grumman, the national security cutter will carry about 120 sailors and has been named for Captain Dorothy C. Stratton—the nation’s first female Coast Guardsman. Stratton, who passed away in 2006, joined the Coast Guard during WWII.

Berning was on deck July 23 with a six-camera video crew providing a live news feed for national media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, and broadcast networks which included a crowd of more than 3,000 people.

During the ceremony, First Lady Michelle Obama smashed a bottle of champagne and said that Stratton was “one of the finest women in uniform.”

Trey Berning, Executive Director of Robert Berning Productions Inc., said “Filming the christening for a national viewing audience is an honor for the production company.”

Berning Productions recently filmed a documentary chronicling Stratton’s achievements for women in the Coast Guard through oversight of the commissioning of 1,000 enlisted officers and 10,000 enlisted women. During WWII Stratton coined SPARS as the name for the women’s organization created to free men from stateside service to fight overseas. SPARS is a contraction of the Coast Guard motto, “Semper Paratus,” which is translated “Always Ready.”

The third of eight planned National Security Cutters, the ship is 418 feet long, has state-of-the-art command and control systems and is considered to be the largest and most technologically advanced of the new multi-mission cutters. Cutters’ missions include drug interception, search and rescue and fishing regulation.

According to the “Coast Guard Compass,” sea trials for the Stratton are slated to begin summer 2011, and the ship is expected to be commissioned in 2012.

 

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