Families Welcome Home Cutter Diligence from 59-Day Patrol

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  • Petty Officer 3rd Class Philip Wert reunites with his fiancée during the Cutter Diligence homecoming March 5, 2016 in Wilmington, North Carolina. (U.S. Coast Guard photo: Mary Ann Holmes/Atlantic Area Ombudsman)
    Petty Officer 3rd Class Philip Wert reunites with his fiancée during the Cutter Diligence homecoming March 5, 2016 in Wilmington, North Carolina. (U.S. Coast Guard photo: Mary Ann Holmes/Atlantic Area Ombudsman)
  • Cutter Diligence crewmembers help with a marriage proposal while mooring into their homeport of Wilmington, North Carolina March 5, 2016. (U.S. Coast Guard photo: Mary Ann Holmes/Atlantic Area Ombudsman)
    Cutter Diligence crewmembers help with a marriage proposal while mooring into their homeport of Wilmington, North Carolina March 5, 2016. (U.S. Coast Guard photo: Mary Ann Holmes/Atlantic Area Ombudsman)

BATH, Maine — Maine's Bath Iron Works is preparing to submit its bid for a contract to build Coast Guard cutters.

The deadline is Tuesday for bids from the Maine shipyard and two competitors— Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana and Eastern Shipbuilding in Florida —for a contract that could be worth up to $10 billion.

Bath Iron Works hasn't built a Coast Guard vessel since the 1930s.

The contract is important as the General Dynamics subsidiary seeks to stabilize its workforce amid U.S. Navy cutbacks.

The shipyard's largest union adopted a new contract in December with a goal of cutting costs and becoming more efficient to produce a more competitive bid for the Coast Guard contract.

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