USCGC Fir is under the Operational Control (OPCON) of the Commander of the Seventeenth Coast Guard District and is homeported in Cordova, Alaska.

The buoys USCGC Fir maintains are essential to commercial vessel traffic in major shipping ports of the Prince William Sound such as Valdez, Cordova, as well as across the Gulf of Alaska in Yakutat.

[2] She has a single controllable-pitch propeller, which along with bow and stern thrusters, allow the ship to be maneuvered to set buoys close offshore and in restricted waters.

The USCGC Fir spends approximately one month per year engaged in fisheries law enforcement off Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea.

An experimental plane flying from Astoria to Seattle suffered engine failure and ditched in the Columbia River in the vicinity of the 17th Street Pier where Fir and USCGC Steadfast were moored.

Coast Guard cutters Aspen, Elm, Oak, Walnut, Juniper, Sycamore, Cypress and Fir were involved in skimming and other contingency operations.

US Coast Guard E Ribbon for the period of 29 October to 16 November 2007, at Fleet Training Group (FTG) San Diego California.