The USS Tornado, a cyclone class patrol ship, happily greeted Bristol residents and visitors on July 3 and 4 as part of the Bristol Fourth of July celebration. The ship made three successful drug busts and seized 5,000 pounds of cocaine and 6,100 pounds of marijuana valued near $75 million while deployed in Florida in May, according to Action News in Jacksonville.

The crew’s mission is to patrol coastal ships and serve as a platform for maritime special operations.   

The Tornado was tied up at the end of the Coast Guard dock as residents climbed aboard to view the ship and chat with the crew.

As Bristolians toured the PC-14 and got to put their hands on the big MK38, a 25-mm chain-gun that can sink ships and shoot up to four miles, the ship’s crew spoke about seizing the drugs and the deployment.

“Our job is to go in and take the drugs and then we sink it,” said machine gunner, Petty Officer Steven Taylor. He explained that the Coast Guard makes the arrest.

“Our ship is worth 20 million,” Taylor said. “We’ve already paid for ourselves and then some,” he boasted.

“I’d like to think that we are slowing them down,” said ET1 Gregory Fraser, while patrolling the ship dressed in fatigues, a bullet-proof vest and carrying a rifle. “We are happy to do our jobs and get the drugs off the streets,” Fraser said.