First Lady to sponsor cutter

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - First Lady Michelle Obama will sponsor the third National Security Cutter. Officials celebrated the ship’s construction Monday at keel laying ceremony. The First Lady will christen the cutter at a Pascagoula ceremony next summer. The 418-foot cutter, WMSL 752, is named in honor of Dorothy C. Stratton, the first female commissioned officer in the Coast Guard. The cutter is more than 20 percent complete and scheduled to be delivered in the summer 2011. (Source: Sun Herald, Mississippi Press, 07/21/09)