USCG AtoN:

[BuoyJumper]

Photo Release
Date: October 22, 2010
Contact: D7 Public Affairs
USCG Photos by:  PO1 Christopher Evanson.

Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
Janet Napolitano observes buoy tending aboard the CGC Anvil



CHARLESTON, S.C. — Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano poses with the crew of the 75-foot Coast Guard Cutter Anvil, a construction barge homeported in Charleston, Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010. Napolitano went underway with the crew to observe aids-to-navigation operations.



Above photos:  Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is given a tour aboard the 75-foot Coast Guard Cutter Anvil, a construction barge homeported in Charleston, Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010. Napolitano went underway with the crew to observe aids-to-navigation operations.



Crewmembers aboard the 75-foot Coast Guard Cutter Anvil, a construction barge homeported in Charleston, repair an aid-to-navigation Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010. Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was underway with the crew to observe aids-to-navigation operations.

Photo Release

[GreenET1]

DHS press release

CGC Anvil (a construction barge ) Anvil is a tug that pushes arround a construction barge

If you look at the full package you could say Tug & Barge.

[EX-CG-GM]

DHS press release

CGC Anvil (a construction barge ) Anvil is a tug that pushes arround a construction barge

If you look at the full package you could say Tug & Barge.

Nope, its a CG press release and just confirms what Ron and I have commented on before.  That is just how little the CG PA's actually know about the subjects they write about.   

And this one was done by a 1st class!   

[BuoyJumper]

Actually Stan this is better than some I've encountered of late but shame on this PO1 for not proofing his work.  Notice the caption on the first photo.  

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano poses with the crew of the 75-foot Coast Guard Cutter Anvil, a construction barge homeported in Charleston, Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010. Napalitano went underway with the crew to observe aids-to-navigation operations. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Christopher Evanson.

He does the same stupid mistake HERE and HERE and also HERE.    

[EX-CG-GM]

 

[BuoyJumper]

Press Release
Date: November 10, 2010
Contact: D9 Public Affairs
USCG Photos by: PO3 Brandon Blackwell

Coast Guard begins nation's
largest buoy retrieval operation



CLEVELAND — In anticipation of the coming ice season and to ensure the safety of vessels transiting the Great Lakes Basin, the Ninth Coast Guard District has begun its annual retrieval of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway System seasonal aids to navigation, the largest domestic aids to navigation recovery operation in the United States.

Operation Fall Retrieve, which includes lighted and unlighted buoys and beacons, commenced Oct. 14, 2010, with a goal of retrieving 1,264 navigational aids, and should be completed by Dec. 28, 2010. The aids, approximately half in the region, are taken out of service during the winter months due to decreased vessel traffic and to minimize damage from ice and severe weather.

The Ninth Coast Guard District's aids to navigation system facilitates safe and efficient maritime activity in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway region by marking safe passage for domestic, international, commercial and recreational vessel traffic. The Coast Guard manages 2,599 federal aids in the region.

The waters of the United States and its territories are marked to assist navigation by the U.S. Aids-to-Navigation System. This system employs a simple arrangement of colors, shapes, numbers and light characteristics to mark navigable channels, waterways and obstructions adjacent to them.

Aids to navigation can provide a boater with the same type of information drivers get from street signs, stop signals, road barriers, detours and traffic lights. These aids may be anything from lighted structures, beacons, day markers, range lights, fog signals and landmarks to floating buoys. Each has a purpose and helps in determining location, getting from one place to another or staying out of danger.

To accomplish the aids to navigation mission, the Ninth Coast Guard District employs six Coast Guard cutters, five Aids-to-Navigation Teams; five small boat stations with aids-to-navigation duties; the Lamplighters, civilian employees who manage the inland waters of Northern Minnesota; and Canadian Coast Guard partners and the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.

In addition, the Ninth District Coast Guard Auxiliary helps inspect approximately 3,000 privately-owned aids to navigation in the region.

Photo Release

[BuoyJumper]

Operation Fall Retrieve
Monday, November 22, 2010
Written by: LTJG Stephanie Young

GREAT LAKES — As the winter season descends upon the Great Lakes region, units at the Ninth Coast Guard District are undertaking a massive effort to remove 1,264 navigational aids protecting 6,700 miles of coastline. Known as Operation Fall Retrieve, this removal of buoys is the largest domestic aids to navigation (ATON) recovery operation in the United States.

Spanning the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway System, the operation incorporates six Coast Guard cutters, five Aids to Navigation Teams (ANTs) and small boat five stations. District’s units also coordinate with Canadian Coast Guard partners and the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.


Operation Fall Retrieve incorporates six Coast Guard cutters, five Aids to Navigation Teams (ANTs) and small boat five stations. Here, members of Coast Guard Cutter Bristol Bay conduct service on an aid. U.S. Coast Guard photos by PA3 George Degener.

The buoys are taken out of service during the winter months due to decreased vessel traffic and to minimize damage from ice and severe weather. If left in place they could sustain damage from the sheets of ice that move in every winter. In some cases, the ice could pull the buoy under, which causes damage to both the buoy hull and the light.

“One of the biggest problems with the buoy hull becoming damaged is that it may sink and never be recovered, said Boatswain’s Mate Jerad Calobreves, the executive petty officer at ANT Duluth, one of the units involved in Operation Fall Retrieve.

As part of Operation Fall Retrieve, ANT Duluth will maintain a total of 83 “seasonal” buoys that includes river and lighted buoys. The ANT will be working long days well into December to complete the job, but at the end of each day there is a constant reminder of how important their work is to the maritime community.



“ATON is very rewarding!” said Calobreves. “Every time you work ATON you can look back and see what you accomplished for the day. Everyone at the unit plays a key role ensuring that all ATON is operating and maintained properly.”

As part of the maintenance for the buoys, they will be taken to the unit and inspected. The ones that are in good condition will stay in the buoy yard for the winter, but some of the buoys that are more worn will be sent out for rehabilitation. This rehabilitation includes sandblasting, patching and repainting the aid. If the aid has lights, its batteries will be recharged and stored through the winter.

Another unit participating in the operations is Station Saginaw River, which is a unique station in that it is responsible for both search and rescue and aids to navigation, giving it the abbreviation of “STANT.” The ATON department at STANT Saginaw River maintains over 100 aids to navigation including floating aids, lighthouses, fixed lights and ranges.

“The time that these buoys are taken out of service is an opportune time to do maintenance on the buoys,” said Seaman Francis Armstrong, a member of STANT Saginaw River’s ATON department. “We inspect the lighted portions of the buoy to make sure they have the correct flash characteristics, that all of the component parts are in working order, that the power source is in working order, and that the light flashes with the correct intensity.”

As a seaman at the unit, Armstrong is responsible for doing a lot of the hands on work that keeps the station running. When asked what work at the station is like day to day, he replied, “In a word: exhausting.”

“The job can be quite exhausting when you are hauling out buoys for eight to ten hours a day during the spring and fall buoy runs,” said Armstrong. “If I am not dirty by the end of the day then I clearly have not been working hard enough.”

Coast Guard Compass

[BuoyJumper]

Photo Release
Date: December 02, 2010
Contact: D9 Public Affairs
USCG Photos by: PO2 Lauren Jorgensen

Coast Guard begins nation's
largest buoy retrieval operation



CLEVELAND — Coast Guardsmen bring Cleveland Harbor's East Basin Channel Lighted Buoy 11 aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bristol Bay, based in Detroit, Dec. 2, 2010, to replace it with a smaller unlit buoy designed to better withstand damage from ice as Lake Erie freezes during the winter months.

U.S., Canadian and industry partners work together to retrieve or replace about half of the lighted and unlighted buoys and beacons throughout the Great Lakes in an evolution known as Operation Fall Retrieve.

Above right:  East Basin Channel Winter Mark 14 replaces East Basin Channel Lighted Buoy 14 in Cleveland Harbor Dec. 2, 2010.

As part of Operation Fall Retrieve, U.S. Coast Guardsmen aboard the Cutter Bristol Bay, based in Detroit, replaced the larger lit buoy with the unlit winter mark designed to better withstand damage from ice.

Photo Release

[xcgmk3]

If memory serves me right we did a round up of strays about every 3 months on the river. Well the commercial fishermen rounded them up ( for a bounty) and we made a stop at their places for them on a run. Oh the smell of rotting channel catfish. 

[BuoyJumper]

Photo Release
Date: December 08, 2010
Contact: D17 Public Affairs

Coast Guard Maple underway
to service non-transmitting weather buoy



JUNEAU, Alaska — The Coast Guard Cutter Maple and the National Buoy Data Center are coordinating plans to service the Edgecumbe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buoy that is no longer transmitting data after it stopped working due to an unknown reason Nov. 20, 2010.

The buoy was reported functioning but not transmitting data during a flyover of the area by an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Sitka Thursday.

The information provided by the buoy assists the National Weather Service by transmitting air and sea temperatures, wind speed and direction, wave height, direction and period, as well as barometric pressure changes. The information is then compiled into weather reports and predictions heavily depended upon by commercial, private and military mariners.

“These buoys are of critical importance to the region," said Lt. Cmdr. Dan Gray, commanding officer of the Maple. "We are making plans to service this aid as soon as logistics and weather permit.”

Coast Guard often works with NOAA and the NBDC to support and service weather buoys.

NOAA’s National Weather Service and NBDC can be accessed online at http://www.nws.noaa.gov and http://seaboard.ndbc.noaa.gov/.

The Maple is a 225-foot Juniper-Class buoy tender operated by seven officers and a crew of 46 men and women homeported in Sitka, Alaska.

To find out more information about Coast Guard Cutter Maple visit, http://www.uscg.mil/d17/cgcmaple/.

Photo Release

[BuoyJumper]

Video Release
Date: December 09, 2010
Contact: D9 Public Affairs

Coast Guard Cutter Bristol Bay underway
to retrieve buoys in Cleveland Harbor



CLEVELAND — Coast Guardsmen aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bristol Bay, based in Detroit, replace buoys in Cleveland Harbor Dec. 2, 2010, with smaller unlit buoys designed to better withstand damage from ice as Lake Erie freezes during the winter months. U.S., Canadian and industry partners work together to retrieve or replace about half of the lighted and unlighted buoys and beacons throughout the Great Lakes in a mission known as Operation Fall Retrieve, the largest domestic aids to navigation recovery operation in the United States.

U.S. Coast Guard video by Petty Officer 2nd Class Lauren Jorgensen

Video Release

[BuoyJumper]

Photo Release
Date: January 13, 2010
Contact: D17 Public Affairs

Coast Guard Cutter Sycamore
crew services buoy in port of Valdez



VALDEZ, Alaska — The Coast Guard Cutter Sycamore crew sets one of two security zone buoys marking the restricted navigational area the Coast Guard patrols helping to protect the Trans Alaska pipeline terminal in the port of Valdez Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011.

The Sycamore is a 225-foot buoy tender homeported in Cordova, Alaska, and is responsible for helping maintain 130 aids to navigation in Alaska.

U.S. Coast Guard photo by Ensign Carla Geyer.

Photo Release

[BuoyJumper]

Photo Release
Date: January 13, 2010
Contact: D17 Public Affairs

Point-Hope-ATON established
by AtoN team Kodiak



POINT HOPE, Alaska — To help vessels safely navigate through the Bering Strait four Coast Guardsmen from Aids to Navigation Team Kodiak traveled to Point Hope to build the Northern-most Coast Guard Aid to Navigation tower in the United States July 28, 2010. Coast Guardsmen carried equipment over uneven terrain a quarter of a mile to where the tower was to be built. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Walter Shinn.

Photo Release

[BuoyJumper]

Photo Release
Date: February 10, 2011
Contact: D5 Public Affairs
USCG Photos by: PO1 Tasha Tully

CGC James Rankin answers
buoys' call for cleaning


Crewmembers aboard the Coast Guard Cutter James Rankin hoist a buoy from the Baltimore Harbor, at 10:51 a.m., Feb. 9, 2011. The 175-foot coastal buoy tender is responsible for maintaining more than 400 buoys in the Chesapeake Bay area.

BALTIMORE — Crewmembers aboard the Coast Guard Cutter James Rankin, a 175-foot coastal buoy tender homeported in Baltimore, conducted routine buoy maintenance in Baltimore Harbor Wednesday.

Federal aids to navigation are required to be inspected annually to ensure they are functioning properly, in their correct position and marking safe water for ships to navigate.

The Rankin is responsible for maintaining more than 400 aids to navigation in the Chesapeake Bay area and is multi-mission capable. Besides servicing aids to navigation, the Rankin can perform missions such as search and rescue, marine environmental protection, maritime law enforcement and domestic ice breaking.


In the photo above left Petty Officer 1st Class LeTroy Burgess records buoy-station data in a computer software program aboard the Coast Guard Cutter James RankinIn the photo far right, Petty Officer 2nd Class Tonya Mills, a crewmember aboard the Coast Guard Cutter James Rankin, assists in hoisting a buoy from Baltimore Harbor, at 10:21 a.m., Feb. 9, 2011. Mills, a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., is one of four female crewmembers aboard the Rankin.

The Rankin was deployed in support of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response to assist in oil recovery efforts with its vessel of opportunity skimming system.

The Rankin was constructed in Marinette, Wis., and commissioned May 1, 1999.

The Coast Guard's responsibility for aids to navigation can be traced back to 1939, when the federal government merged the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Lighthouse Service.

Photo Release