On the 104th anniversary of the torpedoing of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Tampa, Sector Sault Ste. Marie will receive a Purple Heart on behalf of the family of one of the ship’s crewmen, local Coast Guard sailor Alfonso J. Busho.

A Sault Ste. Marie native, Busho, along with 110 other Coast Guard sailors, was lost during the sinking of the Tampa. One of the Coast Guard’s most storied cutters, the Tampa had been assigned to escort ships vital to the war effort in the northern Atlantic. On the evening of Sept. 26, 1918, while enroute to Wales in the United Kingdom for resupply, the cutter was torpedoed and sunk. In total, 111 Coast Guard sailors, four Navy sailors, and 16 passengers aboard the vessel perished and were never recovered.

The crew was honored with the Purple Heart medal in 1999 after a petition was made to then-Coast Guard Commandant James Loy. Since then, Coast Guard researchers and historians have been working diligently to find the remaining families of Tampa’s lost Coast Guard sailors for the award of the medal.

Despite extensive search efforts, approximately 40 medals remain unclaimed.

Personnel from the sector will gather to mark the event at 10 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 26 in the sector dining facility.