Today in Coast Guard History
1883 – At a quarter before 4 o’clock In the morning the two surfmen on patrol from the Plum Island Station (Second District), below Newburyport, Massachusetts, discovered a vessel ashore on the south breaker at the entrance of Newburyport Harbor, about half a mile northeast of the station. A signal was made to her that she was seen and the men hurried to the station and gave the alarm. The boat reached her shortly after 4 o’clock. She was the schooner Forest Maid with a crew of seven men bound on a fishing cruise. While going out over the bar, the wind being light, she had been carried by the strong ebb tide on to the shoal. The first thing done by her crew was to let go an anchor to hold her, but finding she continued to drive farther on they veered away. They were disappointed, for she soon fetched up hard and fast with ninety fathoms of cable out. As the water was still falling nothing could be done until the flood tide. The life-saving crew remained on board and when the tide began to rise at 8 o’clock, commenced operations by heaving in on the cable, The wind freshened considerably while they were at work, raising quite a swell, which caused the schooner to pound heavily. They persevered, however, gaining a little every time she lifted on the seas, so that by 9 o’clock the schooner was safely afloat and on her way back into the harbor, apparently none the worse for the accident.
2009 – On the evening of October 29, 2009, CG Rescue 1705, a Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento HC-130H aircraft was conducting a search and rescue mission near San Clemente Island off the California coast when they were involved in a mid-air collision with a U.S. Marine Corps AH-1W Cobra Helicopter. That night, Lietuenant Commander Che Barnes, Lieutenant Adam Bryant, chief Petty Officer John Seidman, Petty Officer Carl Grigonis, Petty Officer Monica Beacham, Petty Officer Jason Moletzsky, and Petty Officer Danny Kreder lost their lives. In addition to these seven Coast Guardsman, Major Samuel Leigh and First Lieutenant Thomas Claiborne of the Unites States Marine Corps were also lost.
Blogs
BM2 Victoria Taylor – the Coast Guard’s newest Surfman – Coast Guard Pacific Southwest blog
Victoria Taylor, a Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class from Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay, was recently designated a Coast Guard Surfman, the highest qualification a coxswain (small-boat driver) can achieve in the Coast Guard. Receiving the Surfman designation puts Taylor in a very elite group. She’s the Coast Guard’s 484th Surfman, one of only six females to ever receive the designation in Coast Guard history, and the very first from Station Humboldt Bay. Only five percent of Coast Guard coxswains receive the qualification, which typically takes years to earn. It took Taylor seven years.
Building the national security cutter: Christening – Coast Guard Compass blog
The service’s first three national security cutters – Bertholf, Waesche and Stratton – have stood watch for the past three years as sentinels of the sea; but there’s about to be a new cutter on the pier, one with a very familiar name.
Coast Guard prohibits inappropriate relationships with recent boot camp grads – Coast Guard All Hands blog
“Our newly graduated recruits are some of our most vulnerable shipmates,” said Rear Adm. Scott Buschman, commander of Force Readiness Command. “What many of them need most at this crucial transition point in their life is a mentor, someone who can help them build professional relationships and establish their Coast Guard career.”
The person who sometimes fills this role for the new graduate is a former instructor or company commander and these professional relationships can be a source of considerable career benefit. However, in a small handful of situations, this professional relationship has been displaced by an inappropriate personal or romantic relationship.
World War II combat diary of J.J. McAndrews: Dropping eggs by the dozen – Coast Guard Great Lakes blog
The Great Lakes Coast Guard is sharing the story of Petty Officer 3rd Class J.J. McAndrews on his journey across the Atlantic Ocean into the Mediterranean Sea for the invasion of Italy, then to the shores of Normandy for D-Day, in our five-week series “World War II combat diary of J.J. McAndrews.” This series comes from the day-to-day diary written by the boatswain’s mate while aboard a landing ship during the war.
Video
Memorial Dedication Ceremony at Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento on October 29, 2011 to honor the crews of HC-130 CG-1705 and USMC AH-1 Vengeance 38 who were lost at sea off the Southern California coast following a mid-air collision on Oct 29, 2009.
