Coast Guard News Offline for Maintenance/Update

Coast Guard News will be offline starting at 11:00 PM today until approximately 1:00 AM while we perform maintenance and upgrades. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

IT’S NO JOKE

SAN DIEGO (CG Public Affairs) - For more than 200 years the U.S. Coast Guard has responded to distress calls at sea as quickly as possible as if it were an actual call for help. But every once in a while, some of those calls are found to be false alarms, or hoax calls, sent by people who willingly mislead the Coast Guard and other search and rescue assets for various reasons. What they don’t realize though is that a hoax call could potentially divert valuable search assets from an actual distress case, and put rescuers unnecessarily in harms way while responding to the false call.

The federal law concerning false distress calls:

14 U.S.C. 88(c) makes it a federal felony for anyone to knowingly and willfully communicate a false distress message to the Coast Guard or cause the Coast Guard to attempt to save lives and property when no help is needed. Penalties include up to 6 years in prison, $250,000 fine, $5,000 civil penalty, and the possible reimbursement to the Coast Guard for the cost of performing the search.

Hoax calls affect everyone, including people who are not boat owners or part of the maritime community. Hoax calls affect:

• The U.S. Coast Guard by placing our men and women in danger by operating ships, boats and aircraft, responding to these false distress calls;
• The American taxpayers by wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. This is money that can be alloted homeland security and/or additional training;
• Those really in distress at sea by interfering with legitimate search-and-rescue cases.

Anyone who knowingly and willfully commits a hoax or false distress call is fleecing America. The Coast Guard is working with the Federal Communications Commission, Department of Justice and other federal, state and local agencies to aggressively prosecute hoax callers and recover costs for the federal government on behalf of all taxpayers.

Coast Guard Assets and Average Hourly Costs

The U.S. Coast Guard, as a matter of both law and policy, does not seek to recover the costs associated with search-and-rescue from the recipients of those services. While we must be mindful to employ a cost-effective response to an incident, response or distress itself must not be delayed or limited by the misplaced concern of “who is to pay the bill.”

One of the exceptions to this rule is the perpetrators of false distress calls. One penalty levied on hoax callers is reimbursement to the Coast Guard for the costs of performing the search. This is determined by hourly standard rates for cutters, boats, aircraft and crew. The follow is the hourly rates for San Diego-based Coast Guard assets (amounts do not include personnel and crew cost and are based on 2005 statistics, they do not reflect current fuel costs):

• More than $480 for a 110-foot patrol cutter
• More than $280 for an 87-foot patrol cutter
• More than $770 for a 41-foot utility boat
• More than $420 for a Coast Guard 25- or 28-foot response boat
• More than $4,400 for an HH-60J Jayhawk helicopter

HOAX CASES THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES:

JANUARY, 1999: A male voice, claiming to be the operator of a motor yacht alerted the Coast Guard in San Diego that his vessel was sinking southwest of Point Loma, Calif., and there were 11 people, nine of them children, on board. Coast Guard assets searched the area with vessels from the San Diego Harbor Patrol and four good samaritan vessels. While the male continued to report the distress, Coast Guard Station San Diego and San Diego Harbor Patrol boats boarded a vessel at anchorage in San Diego Harbor. The distress transmission abruptly concluded when the units approached the Dessert Diver. It is strongly believed this distress call was a hoax originated from the vessel.

FEBRUARY 2005: Patricia Johnson, 49, of Selmer, Tenn., pleaded guilty October 27, 2004 in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, Mich., to charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and making a false distress call to the Coast Guard. She was sentenced to two years in a federal prison and was ordered to pay $56,958.30 in restitution to the Coast Guard.

JUNE 2004: U.S. Coast Guard Seaman Apprentice Robert T. Tolson, assigned to the San Diego-based Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton, pled guilty to three charges and specifications related to making a false distress calls at a court-martial proceeding. Tolson was sentenced to receive a reduction in pay grade to E-1, the lowest enlisted paygrade; confinement for five months in the U.S. Naval Brig at Miramar, Calif.; and a bad conduct discharge from the Coast Guard.

MAY 2004: Coast Guard Investigative Services (CGIS) in cooperation with the Federal Communications Commission and the Northern California U.S. Attorney’s office ended a three-year-long hoax-calling spree by Kurtis D. Thorsted of Salinas, Calif. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment and was order to pay $29,000 in restitution to the Coast Guard.

MARCH 2004: Everett A. Sawyer, a Gloucester, Mass. fisherman, pled guilty and was found guilty for violating the New Hampshire criminal law, “False Public Alarm,” for knowingly communicating a false distress message to the Coast Guard. The Portsmouth (N.H.) District Court fined Sawyer $1,700.

MARCH 2004: United States District Judge of Western Washington District of Washington sentenced James Garrett Baldwin, 31, of Aberdeen, Wash., to 12 months and one day imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised release for one count of communicating a false distress message to the Coast Guard. Baldwin was also ordered to pay $194.587 in restitution to the Coast Guard.

Cosco Busan Pilot Blames Coast Guard For Oil Spill

The San Francisco Chronicle reportsthat:

Lawyers for Capt. John Cota, pilot of the freighter Cosco Busan, claim that the Coast Guard shares responsibility for the accident that caused a huge oil spill in San Francisco Bay last fall.

In a letter to the National Transportation Safety Board obtained by The Chronicle, Cota’s attorneys say the veteran ship pilot will refuse to testify at a NTSB hearing scheduled for next week.

Cota will invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. He is facing criminal negligence charges as a result of the Nov. 7 accident, when the Cosco Busan crashed into one of the Bay Bridge towers, spilling more than 50,000 gallons of fuel oil that fouled beaches and killed more than 2,000 birds.

The lawyers claim that the spill was the Coast Guard’s fault because they should have warned him about the fog and they should have been more clear in telling him that he appeared to be on a collision course with the bridge.

March 16th - Lincoln Memorial - 1500 - Be There

On Sunday, March 15th a group of veterans will complete a 16 day walk from the NC/SC line to the Lincoln Memorial. The purpose of their mission? To raise support for U.S. troops, the military leadership, their mission and the “Resolve to Win”.

This march is strictly to show support for our troops in Iraq. It’s not political, nor is it to support any particular party. This is an endorsement of General Petraeus’s leadership and the skill, talent and sacrifice of our Troops to win in Iraq. Our troops need to know we remember them, by showing our Patriotism, that we care and support them and that they are, and will not be, forgotten now or later.

The effort “Resolve to Win” is being co-chaired by the American Legion from Virginia and the VFW from North Carolina. In addition it has gained the support of the Gathering of Eagles, Eagles UP, Patriot Guard, Rolling Thunder and the Combat Infantry Association amongst others.

Visit their blog at: http://resolvetowin.us/ or google “resolve to win” to find out more about this heroic endeavor, and what you can do to show your support as they enter the final days of the walk.

As any Coast Guardsman who is paying attention knows, the Coast Guard is deeply involved in the war on terror. If you are in the DC area, it would be great if you would show our Resolve to Win by being at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday to show your support for our brothers in arms.

Thanks to Peter Stinson of An Unofficial Coast Guard Blog for bringing this to my attention.

The Race to Save the Cougar Ace

On July 23, 2006 the Cougar Ace, a 654-foot car carrier owned by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, reported to the Coast Guard that they were taking on water and listing 80 degrees. The Singapore homeported vessel, carrying 4,813 vehicles, was enroute to Vancouver B.C.

In a dramatic rescue, the Coast Guard was able to successfully remove all 23 crewmembers from the ship.

Joshua Davis of Wired tells the story of how a crew from Titan Salvage were able to save the ship, although they lost one of their own in the process. Take some time and check out
High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace. It’s long but well worth your time.

Coast Guard News is Back Online

Due to some technical difficulties, we were offline for the last 12 hours.  Fortunately, I was able to finally fix it.  The news should be updated within the hour.

As an aside, if anyone can recommend a good multi-site host, please leave me a comment.  Over the last month, I’ve had several problems with my current host and this site.

America’s Lifesavers vs. Northwest Floods

The following is reposted from the Department of Homeland Security Leadership Journal

Last week, a life-threatening storm, the Pineapple Express, swept through the Pacific Northwest. Within hours, hurricane-force winds with gusts close to 130 mph and torrential rains caused record-breaking floods throughout the region. Thousands of residents were stranded when major highways quickly became rivers, cutting off those who needed help. Communities throughout Oregon and Washington flooded like never before, taking the lives of ten people. The Coast Guard closed all river bars from Tillamook, Oregon, north to the Straits of Juan De Fuca, and pre-positioned additional people and equipment in advance of the storm.

Coast Guard rescuers saved more than three hundred people and six pets, in our biggest mass rescue operation since Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast more than two years ago. Working hand-in-hand with our local, state and Federal emergency response partners, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, air and boat crews rescued and evacuated storm victims from some of the most remote and inaccessible locations. In order to assist such a large number of people in distress, our local commanders brought in reinforcement from as far away as San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento. These Coast Guard men and women demonstrated selflessness and devotion to duty, concentrating on rescuing others despite being without power and communications at home and work, and having little contact with their own families. One Coast Guard watchstander stood 26 hours of continuous watch, coordinating landing zone logistics and air operations in Chehalis, Washington.

During one rescue operation, a Coast Guard aircrew helped evacuate a mother and her premature newborn baby. The infant was suffering from respiratory distress and needed transport to another hospital’s neonatal unit. The aircrew from Air Station Port Angeles responded by attending to the mother while another crewmember provided manual breathing for the newborn. The baby survived by breathing through a tube during the one hour in flight, while both mother and child were being safely transported to the hospital.

We also reached out to more than 500 volunteers through our regional Citizen’s Action Network to assist us in locating people in distress, identifying pollution incidents, and responding to discrepancies in aids to navigation as a result of the record flooding.

Coast Guard men and women, with our partners at the Department of Homeland Security, are deployed all across the country and stand ready to respond to all threats and hazards as we carry out our duties as America’s lifesavers and guardians of the seas.

Admiral Thad W. Allen
Commandant U.S. Coast Guard

Don’t Let a Boating Ejection Ruin Your Holiday Trip

TAMPA, Fla. - The Coast Guard, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and other local law-enforcement agencies urge boaters to use caution on the water and boat safely and responsibly.

“First and foremost, always wear your lifejacket. Lifejackets save lives, period. Pay attention to your speed and the sea conditions, and properly connect the kill switch that shuts off the engine if you are thrown from your boat,” said Lt. Jason Franz, Coast Guard spokesman.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend there were several boating incidents where people were ejected from their vessels, resulting in a death and several injuries. Although these accidents are still under investigation, it appears that the vessels may not have been operated in a manner or at a speed appropriate to the weather and water conditions.

According to the Coast Guard’s national statistics, a reported 485 people were ejected from their boats in 2006, resulting in 202 deaths and 306 injuries. The Coast Guard recommends that boaters use caution while underway, pay attention to weather and sea conditions, heed safety and speed zones, file a float plan, and always wear a lifejacket.

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office Marine Unit recommends that vessel owners know the capabilities of their own vessel and that when operating on the waterways are familiar with the conditions of the environment that they are operating in. In addition, operators must be in command and control of their vessel at all times as they are not only responsible for their own safety, but the safety of all occupants.

According to FWC, falling overboard was the number one cause of the 69 boating fatalities reported statewide in 2006.

“With an ever-increasing number of boating-related drownings, we continue to encourage boaters not to get complacent about wearing a life jacket. It’s the best insurance policy against the dangerous and unpredictable nature of life on the water,” said Gary Morse, FWC spokesman.