Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Coast Guard Names Ship After Jewish-American Guardsman Killed In Iraq War

(JTA) — The Coast Guard named a new ship after Nathan Bruckenthal, a Jewish-American Coast Guardsman killed in the Iraq War.

The fast-response cutter boat was commissioned Wednesday in Alexandria, Virginia.

Bruckenthal was killed in 2004 at the age of 24. He was the first Coast Guardsman to be killed in action since the Vietnam War.

He and two Navy sailors died as they intercepted a small boat in the Persian Gulf with a suicide bomber on board. The team’s actions helped prevent another coordinated attack.

Bruckenthal was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, his second Combat Action Ribbon and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal for his actions.

The Stony Brook, New York, native joined the Coast Guard after attending high school in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

His father spoke about his son’s sacrifices.

“He was always a hero in our mind, before he made the ultimate sacrifice,”  Rick Bruckenthal said, as quoted by The Washington Post. “The last story is the sad story, but also a great story because we don’t know how many people’s lives he and his crew saved that day.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.