The Coast Guard Cutter GENTIAN (WIX 290) was decommissioned on Friday, June 23, 2006, at Causeway Island, Miami Beach, FL. She was originally commissioned on November 3, 1942 as the fourth in a succession of the Conifer class (180 foot) Buoy Tenders. She was the second oldest cutter in the Coast Guard fleet and the oldest in the Coast Guard's Atlantic fleet. The GENTIAN was the Coast Guard's only cutter with a multi-national crew, with 16 members of other countries' maritime services joining 29 U. S. Coast Guard members in completing numerous multi-national exercises and disaster relief missions throughout the Caribbean. See the Caribbean Support Tender Mission page for more complete information on the GENTIAN. See the GENTIAN's History page below for her complete history.

Many thanks to an old friend, CDR Eduardo Pino, Commanding Officer of the GENTIAN, for the invitation to the decommissioning ceremony.