Unalaska, AK – Nigerian Navy personnel have traveled to Unalaska for training on the Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau.

The 21 Nigerian officers and engineers are preparing to receive excess military equipment as part of the government's foreign military sales program. The Nigerian Navy will be taking over the Cutter Chase, a 44-year-old vessel that the Coast Guard had planned to decommission as part of its fleet upgrade.

Commander Gregory Wisener is the executive officer aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau, and he's helping out with this training. He says that there are a couple of options the United States has when it is ready to retire military equipment of this size. For example, it can convert a cutter like the Chase into a National Wildlife Refuge by turning it into an ocean reef, at a cost of $10 million. It can also sell the equipment to a friendly nation, like Nigeria.

"Being able to give this to a nation that we have some common interests with is a great way to do it," says Wisener.

The Chase is one of a dozen cutters built in the 1960s and 1970s that is reaching the end of its lifespan. Wisener says that it's costly to maintain these vessels because the parts they need are no longer being produced in the United States.

"Because there are 12 ships and their life expectancy is 40 years, they're all kind of coming due at the same time. It's kind of like when you pay off your car, the maintenance problems start after that," says Wisener. "Well, our maintenance problems are about triple what we have budgeted for."

He adds that the Nigerian Navy should be able to maintain the Cutter Chase at a low cost, because they can build their own parts with less expensive labor involved.

The Nigerian Navy personnel arrived in Unalaska last night, and they'll be taking part in the Morgenthau's patrol of the Bering Sea until mid-April. During that time, they'll be learning how cutters like the Morgenthau and the Chase operate and how to maintain them.

"In a very short time, they have to learn how to operate a pretty complicated power plant, how to maintain propulsion, how to operate the electrical systems, how to control damage on the ship - they have to learn a lot," says Wisener.

After they finish the patrol, the Navy personnel will stay with the Morgenthau as the vessel returns to its homeport of Alameda, California. The Nigerian Navy will take control of the vessel in May, at which point the rest of the crew will join them for training.

The Coast Guard will be replacing the Chase with a modern national security cutter.