You never marched like this
December 21st, 2011 | Army Coast Guard Marine Corps Navy Sports Submarines | Posted by Joshua Stewart
No matter how much you loved your sub and how well you can march, or the weird ideas that fermented in your brain after weeks underway without sunlight, you never, not once, thought of doing anything like the formations the West Virginia University Marching Band pulled off.
The whole clip is good and worth a peek, but the Navy stuff starts at 2:50.
It’s tough to say what detail is the best – the submerging sub or the turning screws.
It’s not clear when the band performed, but the clip was uploaded Nov. 6, the day after the Mountaineers lost to the University of Louisville 35-38.
Elves in orange vests
November 29th, 2011 | Coast Guard Entertainment Historical Traditions | Posted by Jenn Rafael
Crew members of the seagoing buoy tender Alder load pallets of Christmas trees Monday in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Alder will deliver the trees to needy families in Chicago. // PA3 George Degener/Coast Guard.
The seagoing buoy tender Alder has a new mission: spreading holiday cheer.
The cutter is carrying hundreds of trees to needy Chicago families as the city’s “Christmas ship.” On Monday, the cutter’s crew took on the holiday cargo in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.
Boatswain's Mate 3rd Class Curt Barrett operates Alder's buoy deck crane to load pallets of trees Monday. // PA3 George Degener/Coast Guard.
The seagoing buoy tender/icebreaker Mackinaw normally does the honors. Its crew delivered more than 1,200 Christmas trees to Chicago families last year. But for this holiday season, Mackinaw is headed to a Wisconsin shipyard for repair of a leaking bow-thruster.
Alder’s mission is the continuation of a Chicago tradition. The original Christmas ship, the Rouse Simmons, brought fresh evergreens and wreaths to Chicago during holiday seasons in the early 1900s. The three-masted schooner entered port with a Christmas tree tied to its mast each year until it was lost in 1912.
Alder is due to arrive in Chicago on Friday morning; trees will be distributed Saturday.
Sneak peek of a CG-themed reality show
October 12th, 2011 | Coast Guard Navy Reality TV Video | Posted by Jill Laster
We wrote in July about a new reality show featuring Coast Guardsmen from Air Station Kodiak, Alaska. The trailer for the Weather Channel show – which debuts Nov. 9 – is now online. Check out the trailer here:
You can read more about the show – and learn about the Coasties featured on “Coast Guard Alaska” – at the Weather Channel’s website for the show.
Coast Guard makes it onto “Jeopardy”
September 30th, 2011 | Coast Guard | Posted by Jill Laster
Jeopardy Productions Inc./The "Jeopardy" set
If you are into Coast Guard trivia and don’t mind answering in the form of a question, check out the “Jeopardy” Clue of the Day today.
The question: “The Coast Guard looks out for the smuggling of drugs and people in this practice, from the Old French for ‘to forbid.’”
If you want to know the answer, watch Friday’s Jeopardy or pick up a Saturday copy of the New York Times. Or, if you’re impatient, you could just do some Googling.
(A side note – For Navy/Civil War buffs, Wednesday’s clue could be fun: “By the end of 1862, this newly appointed rear admiral controlled the entire Gulf Coast except for Mobile.” Click here for the answer.)
Waiting for Irene
August 26th, 2011 | Coast Guard Disaster response Hurricane Navy | Posted by Bill McMichael
With the outer bands of Hurricane Irene beginning to lash the southeastern coast of North Carolina, Coast Guard fliers and search-and-rescue personnel flew out of Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., this morning, and we’re in hurry-up-and-wait mode at the North Carolina Air National Guard Base, adjacent to Charlotte International Airport. Another C-130 crew is staged in Raleigh.
The crews and SAR personnel moved to get their aircraft out of harm’s way. But as the storm passes to the northeast, they’ll be the first to fly over the damaged areas — anywhere from South Carolina to Martha’s Vineyard, officials say. One or both C-130s will be tasked for either search-and-rescue ops — they’ll try to spot stranded mariners for follow-on H-60 rescue efforts.
Despite the conditions, the C-130 crew here in Charlotte is on alert for immediate deployment. So for now, down time for hotel check-in, chow and crew rest. Calm before the storm.
How do the academies measure up?
August 1st, 2011 | Coast Guard Coast Guard Academy Naval Academy | Posted by Jill Laster
The Naval and Coast Guard academies — as you might expect — aren’t the first colleges to consider when you’re looking for a party school.
But alongside ranking high as a “stone-cold sober” school in this year’s Princeton Review rankings, the two academies got high marks for accessible professors, low marijuana use and “running like butter” (meaning administration works well).
On the not-so-good end: The Naval Academy ranked seventh for “least happy students” of the 376 U.S. schools included in this year’s rankings and 14th for “dorms like dungeons.” The Coast Guard Academy placed similarly, ranking fourth for “least happy students” and fifth for “dorms like dungeons.”
Here’s a full list of categories in which each of the four service academies ranked highly:
Naval Academy
Most Accessible Professors — #4
Don’t Inhale (marijuana usage reported low) — #6
Future Rotarians and Daughters of the American Revolution — #6
Stone-Cold Sober Schools — #6
Least Happy Students — #7
Dorms Like Dungeons (dorms get low ratings) — #14
Everyone Plays Intramural Sports — #16
School Runs Like Butter (administration gets high marks) — #20
Coast Guard Academy
Don’t Inhale (marijuana usage reported low) — #2
Most Accessible Professors — #2
College Town Not So Great — #3
Least Happy Students — #4
Stone-Cold Sober Schools — #4
Dorms Like Dungeons (dorms get low ratings) — #5
Future Rotarians and Daughters of the American Revolution — #8
School Runs Like Butter (administration gets high marks) — #8
This is a Library? (college library gets low marks) — #16
Got Milk? (beer usage reported low) — #17
Scotch & Soda, Hold the Scotch (hard liquor usage reported low) — #17
Most Conservative Students (lean right politically) — #18
West Point
Best Classroom Experience — #1
Most Accessible Professors — #1
Best Athletic Facilities — #3
Best Health Services — #3
Everyone Plays Intramural Sports — #4
Stone-Cold Sober Schools — #5
Most Politically Active Students — #6
Don’t Inhale (marijuana usage reported low) — #7
Students Study the Most (report highest # of study hrs per day) — #7
Best College Library — #8
Future Rotarians and Daughters of the American Revolution — #9
Most Conservative Students (lean right politically) — #13
College Town Not So Great — #14
Most Religious Students — #15
Class Discussions Encouraged — #16
School Runs Like Butter (administration gets high marks) — #18
Scotch & Soda, Hold the Scotch (hard liquor usage reported low) — #19
Air Force Academy
Don’t Inhale (marijuana usage reported low) — #1
Got Milk? (beer usage reported low) — #4
Most Accessible Professors — #5
Most Conservative Students (lean right politically) — #5
Scotch & Soda, Hold the Scotch (hard liquor usage reported low) — #5
Future Rotarians and Daughters of the American Revolution — #7
School Runs Like Butter (administration gets high marks) — #9
Stone-Cold Sober Schools — #13
Least Happy Students — #15
Most Politically Active Students — #19
Don’t drink and steer?
November 2nd, 2010 | Coast Guard merchant ships | Posted by David Larter
The medium endurance cutter Active underway in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Coast Guardsmen busted a Korean freighter captain for drunken driving in the strait. // PA2 Jacquelyn Zettles
Everyone who watches television or looks at billboards has, at some point, been told how stupid it is to drink and drive. It’s one of those things you just know not to do.
If driving a car is a bad idea after drinking, then driving a 600-foot freighter down Juan de Fuca Strait, near the busy Puget Sound, is an even worse idea.
The Coast Guard busted Seong Og Sin, skipper of the STX Daisy, in April and charged him with operating under the influence. Sin blew a .108 when he was tested. A court in Tacoma, Wash., sentenced him last week to 14 days in lockup, according to the Victoria Times Colonist.
The Colonist poses an interesting question in its write-up of the incident:
What made the U.S. Coast Guard suspicious of the sea captain who was just jailed for driving his freighter down Juan de Fuca Strait while drunk? Was he weaving in the shipping lanes? Chucking empties out of the wheelhouse? Sporting a lampshade instead of a captain’s hat?
The Colonist reports the reason the Coast Guard busted the captain is unclear. But what is clear is that, under U.S. law, the captain of a seagoing vessel may not have a blood alcohol level above .04.
Whales and speed don’t mix
October 21st, 2010 | Coast Guard Environment merchant ships | Posted by David Larter
Harbor tugs and the Coast Guard coastal patrol boat Pike head toward the Bay Bridge in front of the San Francisco skyline. // AP Photo by Jeff Chiu
The Coast Guard is trying to juggle traffic flow into San Francisco’s busy port and pressure from environmentalists about its impact on marine sanctuaries where mammals feed.
San Francisco’s ABC affiliate reported earlier in the day that traffic is picking up into the Port of San Francisco and ships are zipping to and from the approach lanes to the bay at about 25 knots. As a result, the Coast Guard is seeking the public’s input, trying to balance the saving the whales and commercial realities.
KGO-TV San Francisco reports:
Faster ships and more whales are converging in an area near the Farallon Islands, where feeding grounds and shipping lanes converge. There is a new effort to reduce a growing number of whale strikes.
One ship didn’t realize a whale was impaled on the bow until it cruised into port last August.
Earlier in October, an endangered blue whale and its fetus washed ashore in San Mateo County. The National Marine Fisheries Service says so far this year six whales have been struck by ships — three were endangered species.
Environmentalists suggest a 10-knot speed limit in the disputed shipping lanes to allow the whales time to avoid being skewered. But shipping companies are concerned slowing down would impact tight delivery timetables, according to the report.
Representatives of the shipping industry declined to talk on camera, but they say restricted speeds to 10 knots would definitely affect their tight delivery schedules.
“They all have a very complicated logistics chain, so it’s planned very carefully and disruptions of it are problematic,” says U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Patrick Maguire.
The Coast Guard, according to the report, is weighing options as part of a “port access route study.”
Coast Guard is totally harshing my mellow, dude
October 20th, 2010 | Coast Guard | Posted by David Larter
Crew members aboard Coast Guard Cutter Sitkinak, stack nearly 1,000 pounds of marijuana at the Base Support Unit Miami June 3. Cutter Edisto recovered a ton of marijuana, 40 miles southwest of San Diego on Oct. 15 // Petty Officer 3rd Class Sabrina Elgammal
The Coast Guard, by any measure, is a fairly busy bunch. The amount its 42,000-odd members accomplish with a budget just over $10 billion is worthy of note.
Its latest accomplishment? The service says it seized approximately 1,000 pounds of marijuana (pot, hydro, righteous bush, reefer, buds) when a C-130 spotted a suspicious vessel about 40 miles from San Diego. The release reads:
Early Friday morning a Coast Guard C-130 patrol aircraft, based in Sacramento, Calif., sighted a suspicious vessel, about 40 miles from San Diego. A Coast Guard patrol boat was diverted to intercept the vessel, and Mexican authorities were notified.
The cutter did not intercept the speedboat, but as it headed toward the craft, the speedboat’s crew was observed throwing bales into the water. The Coast Guard recovered the bales from the water, which later tested positive as marijuana.
The bales of marijuana were offloaded from the Edisto and custody of the bales was transferred to Maritime Task Force San Diego.
That’s a lot of pot; more than even Snoop Dogg could smoke in a year.
Oh buoy, there goes $18,000
October 18th, 2010 | Arctic Aviation Coast Guard | Posted by David Larter
Aircrew aboard a Kodiak-based HC-130 Hercules aircraft deploy an ice buoy from the rear of the aircraft Aug. 17, 2009, over the Arctic Ocean for the first time. // Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Yonk
Ice is on the outs in the Arctic. As a result there is an enormous treasure-trove of previously undiscovered natural resources being made accessible by the receding ice. Now Russia, the U.S., Greenland and everybody in between who has an Arctic coastline is struggling for control of as much loot as possible.
So, Arctic research has become a popular subject around the defense establishment. Apparently scientists teaming with the Coast Guard are still working out some kinks.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports a joint Coast Guard-University of Washington study got off to a rough start when an $18,000 buoy dropped from a C-130 based in Kodiak, Alaska, failed to transmit. Now it’s lost at sea and nobody is looking for it:
The enormous cost of searching in the Arctic will mean no effort will be made to recover the buoy, especially because it is not transmitting its location. That is part of the price of doing business in the Arctic, said University of Washington researcher and mathematician Roger Andersen.
“I’m afraid a cost of ($18,000) seems very large, but the logistics costs of a capable vessel or aircraft conducting such search would be far more,” he wrote in an e-mail.
“The takeaway point is the data is extremely valuable, and data from unmanned data buoys is a bargain, easily worth losing a few buoys in a failed deployment, crushed in a pressure ridge or chewed by a bear.”
What caused the buoy’s problems is not known.