THE LUCKY BAG: Stories about former CG vessels and Coasties

[BuoyJumper]

THE LUCKY BAG:
How many of you remember the "Lucky Bag" from our Coast Guard days where you just might come across a goodie thrown into the mix for next to nothing.  Well from time to time you or I may come across a great story about a former USCG vessel or a former Coastie still doing what they know how to do best but we just haven't had a place to post the story like the one to follow.  Hence the "Lucky Bag" a name given to the thread by EX-CG-GM where you just might find a treasure waiting to be discovered............ Buoy

[BuoyJumper]

Miracle on the Hudson

I was warming up my boat, the M/V LT Michael P. Murphy, today at Linclon Harbor Yacht Club, getting it ready for the big freeze tomorrow when I heard a call on the radio “Airplane down in the North River”. I’m figuring a Cessna or the like and I put it full ahead and head out into the river to see if it’s near me. I look to the North and I see a tail sticking out of the water, a big tail, 757 possibly.


Every boater has his dreamboat. For firefighter Scott Koen it's an ex-USCG 46-foot buoy boat he's called the LT Michael P. Murphy which he named for a Navy Seal killed in Afghanistan.  With a hefty 180-hp diesel, plenty of room on deck, and amenities for staying aboard -- four sleeping berths, a head with a shower, air-conditioning and galley facilities it's everthing he wants.

The aircraft is about a mile away so it takes me a few minutes to get on site. As I approach there are 4 NY Water Way ferries maneuvering to pick up survivors who are both on the wing and in rafts. I have a 46 ft Ex USCG Buoy Tender with a white angled stripe on the side which is low to the water so I pull up beside the ****pit on the right side of the AC and slide aft to pick up victims.

There are 2 men standing on the wing in waist deep water, one is trying to keep the raft from floating away by holding onto the emergency exit and the rafts rope. He is not trying to get on the raft but just protecting the 14 people that are. They look cold wet and shaken. He looks worse. I maneuver back to the wing but I am reluctant to keep my engine in gear in case someone goes in the water, so I have one of the ferries pin me to the side of the aircraft so I can grab the closest man and pull him on board. He says “Thank You” and “Please help the others” and climbs aboard the ferry to get warm. Its difficult for me because I am the only one on my boat, I have to run from the pilothouse to maneuver then aft to assist rescue. As more assets arrive everything is moving up and down with the waves and it gets a little rough.



At this point the ferry and my boat have twisted around and people are getting on his rescue ladder, which is kind of like a cargo net. I abandon my boat and climb aboard the ferry to assist. The hero with the rope finally jumps into the water and slithers aboard the raft. Everyone on board says “him first” so he tries to climb up the ladder. At this point he is extremely hypothermic, his limbs are shaking and he needs help. I climb down beside him and start pulling him up, first by the arms, then the belt. Finally he gets topside. I stay on the net and keep pulling the others up. The raft is moving in and out, I am more worried about someone else going in the water so I let go and wait for the ferry captain to gently nudge us back in. The Coast Guard is on the other side of the raft so it’s now a choice, Warm Ferry with a climb or another raft with a motor. My hands are so cold they quit working and are just claws, but that works in this situation.

As the last victim climbs up I loose my glasses, I can see them below me on the net, I figure, just payment for 150 lives and climb up.

Scott Koen

Scott Koen's Flicker Photo Stream
Original Article

[EX-CG-GM]

Good story.  I guess even old retired Coast Guard boats just keep saving lives!   

[BuoyJumper]

I agree Stan ... it's a great story and one that I knew I wanted to share but I wasn't sure where to post it.  So that's when I decided to make up a new thread and thanks to your suggestion call it THE LUCKY BAG for stories and or articles on former Coasties or former USCG vessels that don't seem to fit anywhere else.  Some that come to mind right off is the Sea Scout Ship in California that has two former CG vessels.  It would also be a great place to post a story on the former CG 82-footer in CG Aux New York or the 44 MLB CG Aux in Grand Haven and some of the other former CG vessels I am aware of.  Could be a fun thread.    

[EX-CG-GM]

It's been several years ago now, but I was cruising the Sacramento Delta with friends and there was an 82' that was a Sea Scout boat.  Might be the one you are referring to.

[BuoyJumper]

There's an old buck-and-a-quarter in San Mateo that's called the SSS Morris.

[captjamie]

Awsome story Ron, and a great idea for this thread hats off too you and stan. For quite a while back in the mid 90,s there was a 180 parked in Rio Vista, she had had a lot of work done to her upperworks, but their was no mistakeing that stern. I think the Sea Scouts in Petaluma have the or an old 50' something like the one we had at boot camp in Alameda.

  mates

[BuoyJumper]

Thanks Jamie ... what really peaked my curiosity and sent me to digging up the facts on this story was NBC's live feed of the Hudson River rescue on that day.  Here I am watching this drama unfold live and I'm seeing a buoy boat (at 50 seconds into the news feed) along side the aircraft.  So I'm thinking that's a buoy boat but where in the hell did that come from as she has no CG markings?  So I am glad that I was able to dig up and tell everybody the rest of the story about the New York firefighter and his former Coast Guard buoy boat and the rescue of U.S. Airways passengers from the chilling cold waters of the Hudson River.

[BuoyJumper]

I am honored to have gotten to know BMCM Maurice Poulin, the late Bernie Webber, Jack Read, Morris Lewis, George Blessing and some of our other senior veterans from WWII just a little from the CG Channel Community and each is an absolute National Treasure to the Coast Guard family.  Maurice you are very much appreciated brother ... keep up your incredible work with miniature ships in a bottle....... Buoy    



Hardships, battleships and bottle ships
Story and photos by Petty Officer 2nd Class Luke Pinneo

NAHANT, Massachusetts — Long retired, Coast Guard veteran Maurice Poulin relaxes at a small workbench in his home in Nahant, Mass., building ships in bottles. His hands are steady for an 85-year-old man.

Just outside the window, waves from Boston Bay slap the shore and a sea breeze fills the room.

"The older you get, the more relaxed you want to be," he said.


BOSTON - Maurice Poulin, 85, is a retired Coast Guard World War II veteran who keeps his love for the sea alive by building ships in bottles in his home in Nahant, Mass.  (U.S. Coast Guard photos Petty Officer 2nd Class Luke Pinneo)

But he remembers a time when life was not so peaceful. Born in 1922, he recalls growing up in hard times when nearly everything was in short supply.

"The Depression formed our generation," he said. "We had to have stamps to buy everything - gas, sugar, even butter."

The stamps were dated and included the quantity people were allowed to buy, and were required in addition to the monetary price.

He said the government donated bags of food and clothes, including pants that could be identified as government-issued by the stitching.

"It was easy to tell all the kids who had no dough by the line on their pants," he said. "It was embarrassing."

Jobs were also scarce.

"For a young kid, there was nothing to do but hang around," he said.


He's made more than 400 and gives them away as gifts to friends, family, dignitaries and museums.  Here he pieces together a small dinghy that, along with its parent ship, will go into a bottle.

In 1939, he found a ticket out of his depressed community. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, a group devoted to building dams and roads, to reforestation projects and founded many of the national and state parks in America today.

He went to Colorado, to help build dams.

"It was like a kid playing with mud," he said.

And a kid he was. He said to get into the CCC, boys had to be 17 years old. He was only 16 so he forged his birth certificate to make him a year older.

"There was nothing else to do," he said.

The CCC paid him $30 a month. He kept $5 and the remaining $25 was sent home to his parents in Lowell, Mass.

"It was more to help the family," he said.

He said back then there was no welfare and people would grab any job available. "They'd do anything to make a buck - sweep streets, pick up garbage." He said when he was 10 years old, he and his friends walked the gutters and collected tobacco from cigarette butts to sell to teenagers for pennies.

"After the Depression, anything would have been better," he said.



He joined the Coast Guard in 1941. Between 1942 and 1945 he served aboard the Leonard Wood, a 535-foot transport ship.

He said for him and his fellow servicemen, the military supplied a steady flow of camaraderie, food and paychecks that were once scant.

Despite the barrage of new conveniences, he found himself in the middle of a world war.

The Leonard Wood carried landing craft that were loaded with tanks, trucks and troops and sent to shore during invasions. During battle, Coast Guardsmen aboard the Leonard Wood were deployed as crew inside the landing craft or as gunners on the ship. In the three years aboard, Poulin did it all, narrowly escaping death several times.

"We would be blinded by bombs going off right off our quarter," he said.

He recalled one battle when a group of enemy airplanes swooped in to attack. One plane approached Leonard Wood low and fast.

With two leathery fingers pointed square at his face he said, "I swore it was going to hit me in the eyes." Instead, he said it buzzed over his head, attacked the ship next to the Leonard Wood, and killed every man aboard.

"War is very strange like that," he said. "I think it's all about luck."

Even now, more than half a century later, he still seems to have luck on his side. Of the nearly 400 ships in bottles he's made, he has given most away as gifts to friends and family, to admirals and local museums. Recently, one he made of the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle was selected by a Smithsonian Institution museum in Washington D.C., to be exhibited until August 2010.

"He's done so many of those models of famous ships and he incorporates some personal touch into them," said Calantha Sears, Poulin's neighbor and curator of the Nahant Historical Society, where three of Poulin's ships are on display.

"I think we're very lucky that he chose Nahant, and I say that as a third generation, lifelong resident," she said. "He's an amazing man and we're lucky to have him."

More Photos Of BMCM Poulin At Work
Featured Article

[MastersMate]

I have had the distinct pleasure of knowing, and being a neighbor, to Maurice from before the teenage years kicked in. The "Chief" , thats how I spoke of him till I was well into my CG time. Wasn't sure he had a first name. My dad and others in town that were close, spoke of him as "Moose" his nickname.

He was the OinC of the Nahant Lifeboat Station in 1961 on till closing down. The Station was the hang out for the local wharf rat kids. All of us in that town were pretty close. I got many a ride bringing the 30' or 36' back to harbor in Lynn.

The Master Chief was OinC of the CG 82326 (later Pt Cypruss). I was in Sea Scouts and oon day he asked if I'd get out of school for a day and like to take a ride up to Gloucester on the 82'. HELL YES !!  There were 4 or 5 CG Auxiliary VIPs giong along also. To my great surprise and honor, he had me get her underway and pilot out of Boston Harbor. Let the Auxiliarists take the wheel outside the harbor. I was 40' tall.

He was my inspiration for joining the Coast Guard. I was going to attend Mass Maritime Academy, but having just a bit of trouble with the eye exam. Master Chief was at the MIO in Boston. He tried everything to get me in, but to no luck. Then he set the hook with the Coast Guard. My Dad figured the Navy would be my path, but "The Chief" got me into the Coast Guard, when that was a near impossible task.

When you use the title, Master Chief Boatswains Mate, Maurice Poulin is who will pop into your mind.

Thanks for the lifelong friendship and setting the first course, Chief.

[captjamie]

One of my dads good friends when I was growing up was Al Frey of Healdsburg Ca. He had been in the CG during WWII, and had told me some pretty good stories. In 44' (I think) he was stationed at Yerba Burena Is. one night on his way to work he stopped off to visit some friends in downtown Petaluma, all the buildings started to shake a little and some windows broke, he thought it was an earthquake, but them there was a very loud bang and he new something was a miss so he hurryed off to YBI, the next morning in the fog he was onboard the first boat to go inland to Port Chicago to find out what happened the night before. If none of you now the history there was a ammo explosion that totaly destoryed 2 navy ships and it even did damage to the lighthouse 1/2 mile or so down stream from port chicago. There is a good book about it and the aftermath called "the Port Chicago Muntiny" get and read it even has a picture or 2 of the lighthouse.

  mates

[CGRDCS]

MY Friends,,This is an email that I received from Squareknot

Fellow Sea Vets,
 
LOIS BOUTON, "Coast Guard Lady"
1616  S. 16th Street
Rogers, Arkansas  72758-5712
Phone  479-636-3591
 
This lady has been the "Matron of Good Will" to Coasties around the world for many, many years. She is turning 90 years old in September, so now it's our turn to return the favor by sending her well-wishes by letter and phone calls. She doesn't use a computer, so get on the phone and/or get out the pen & paper, and send her a good old fashioned "HAPPY BIRTHDAY". She's still in pretty good health and will enjoy those Greetings from everyone.......SEMPER PARATUS........
 JOHN ESTEP


Let's give her a Great Birthday

Hawk

[BuoyJumper]

Feature Story Release
PA1 Nyx Cangemi
December 14, 2006

The Coast Guard Lady, SPAR Lois Bouton



Writing letters to more than 300 Coast Guard units can be a daunting task for even the most seasoned of writers, but for this 87-year-old WWII veteran, it's a task she takes on every day.
 
Sitting at a small table near the entrance of her home, she peers through her oversized glasses; the lenses making her eyes appear five times larger than they actually are. Delicately and slowly, the recent events of her life pour onto a small piece of paper with a lighthouse decor - her favorite stationary. Lighthouses of all shapes and sizes surround her in her modest Arkansas home while she meticulously handwrites each letter, and the lighthouses that surround her blend in among a sea of Coast Guard patches and hats, which hang throughout her home.

A child of the great depression, Lois Bouton joined the Coast Guard woman's reserve, known as the SPARS (a shortened version of the service's credo, Semper Paratus, Always Ready) during WWII in order to backfill the positions of the Coast Guard men who went overseas to join in the war. Her career, which spanned the years between 1943 and 1945, sent her on a journey that she memorializes in her home and in the letters she writes to Coast Guard units throughout the country. Her dedication to the service has earned her the respect of even the highest-ranking of Coast Guard admirals and garnered her the moniker as "The Coast Guard Lady."

During WWII, Bouton worked as a first-grade teacher in a one-room, Illinois schoolhouse. Wanting more from life, she enlisted in the Coast Guard and was sent to Palm Beach, Fla., for boot camp.

"We were at the Biltmore Hotel in Palm Beach," Bouton recalled. "They put six people to a room and took the doors off the rooms. Twenty-five years later at a reunion, the hotel still looked the same except they put the doors back on the rooms. We stayed on the fifth floor of the hotel and had to walk down the stairs whenever we went to the beach. There, we learned a lot of things like how to march. I wasn't very good because I am left-handed and often get my left and my right mixed up."

Bouton's first assignment after completing boot camp sent her packing her bags and moving - from the fifth floor of the Biltmore Hotel, to the seventh.

"After boot camp, I met with a classification officer," Bouton said. "She saw that I used to be a teacher and offered me a position as a boot-camp instructor. So I stayed there and taught organization. Of the three different courses [personnel, organization and activities] mine was the dullest of all of them."

When her tour as a boot-camp instructor was complete, Bouton served a short stint in San Francisco as a maintenance worker before transferring to Radioman school at Atlantic City, N.J.


ROGERS, Ark. - A group of females from Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans looks through a scrapbook made by Lois Bouton in her home here Monday, Dec. 4, 2006. The air station crew flew to Rogers in order to personally meet Bouton, who served in the Coast Guard women's reserve as a radioman from 1943-1945. Coast Guard photograph by Petty Officer 1st Class NyxoLyno Cangemi

"I wrote a woman over there that I knew because I wanted to know what it was like," Bouton said. "Stamps were rationed back then, but I took advantage of the government's correspondence method back then by writing the word ‘free' in place of the stamp. The lady I knew wrote me back saying, ‘Don't come here! It's horrible. The barracks are a firetrap, there isn't any heat, the meals are terrible and the hours are long, but there is one good thing, they have hot water. One of the girls got scolded when the hose broke off the washing machine.'"

"I didn't think it could be that bad, so I went to the school anyway," Bouton said. "I was wrong - it was much worse."

At school, Bouton learned the skills needed and became a certified radioman.

"I learned a lot there - Morse code and some other things," Bouton recalled. "I didn't know what it all meant at the time, but I learned it."

Now a Coast Guard radioman (or in her case, radiowoman) Bouton got stationed in Bethany Beach, Del., where she performed all the job functions her male counterpart had done before he went off to war.

"At the station, it was only me and another woman who ran the equipment," Bouton said. "We would send weather information, track the movement of boats and send coordinates to ships."

"Toward the end of the war, we were all waiting to hear the official word that the war had ended," Bouton said. "Our chief was sleeping one morning, and some of the people I worked with were bored and decided it would be a good time to wake up our chief. One of them got a metal pipe and started banging on a pan. Someone on the outside heard the racket and they started making noise themselves, and the noise carried on throughout the neighborhood. Soon, everyone in town was honking their car horn. Everyone thought the war was over! The official word eventually came out a few days later, but I am sure everyone there thought the Coast Guard had some inside information."

With the war now over, Bouton moved back to Illinois and continued with her career as a first-grade teacher.

"Every now and then, I would have my students write cards to the injured war veterans," Bouton said.

Afterwards, she would take the cards the children had written and deliver them to a local veteran's hospital along with a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies.

On one such trip, a member of the Coast Guard was at the hospital recuperating from some injuries he sustained during the war. He and Bouton became instant friends. From that moment on, she would always visit the Coast Guard members first and would forever be known as "The Coast Guard Lady" - a much more personalized nickname from her previous "Chocolate Chip Lady," because of the cookies she baked.

Bouton continued her exploits at the veteran's hospital for years to come until the day came when she decided to retire to the warmer climate of Rogers, Ark.


Lois Bouton sits at her table in her home here Sunday, Dec. 3, 2006, and writes a letter to a Coast Guard unit in New Orleans. Bouton is known throughout the Coast Guard as "The Coast Guard Lady," and she writes letters and cards to more than 300 servicemen and women each year.
Coast Guard photograph by Petty Officer 1st Class NyxoLyno Cangemi

"I still wanted to keep in touch with the Coast Guard, and without a veteran's hospital to visit, I started writing my letters," Bouton said. "I called up someone in the Coast Guard, I still can't remember who it was, and I asked them for the address of an isolated [navigation] unit in Alaska. I got the address and wrote them a letter. A few weeks later, I got a response back. It felt so good that I wrote more letters. Somewhere along the way, I got a hold of a [Coast Guard address book] and wrote to more units."

Today, Bouton has three index card boxes full of address that she writes to throughout the year, and she receives cards and letters from people throughout the Coast Guard, including the commandant.

It's early December 2006, and Bouton ventures out into the cold, blustery Arkansas air and approaches her mailbox like she does any other day. She retrieves her mail and returns to the inviting warmth of her home. She becomes elated as she opens the oversized envelope and pulls out a card and small photo from a retired Coast Guard telecommunications specialist.

In part, the card reads:

"Did you know that your cards always seem to get put up first and taken down last? You are very much appreciated by all Coasties everywhere."

Bouton's face, flush with joy, now bears a smile that seems to stretch past her oversized spectacles and says, "It's cards like this one that make it all worth it." Authors note: To write Lois Bouton, please send letters and cards to The Coast Guard Lady, 1616 16th St., Rogers, AR, 72758. Additionally, donations of stamps are always welcome.

Feature Story Release

[BuoyJumper]

SHIPMATES ....
In posting the story about Lois Bouton, the Coast Guard Lady celebrating her 90th birthday this September, it brought to my remembrance that Chief Emil de Ocampo will be turning 102 on September 1st.  According to this article  Memories are vivid for Coast Guard retiree, 101  the old Chief is not doing so well.  According to the article "He is under hospice care at the Carmel Valley home of his devoted daughter and son-in-law, and he can see the light dimming."  If any of you reading this could get us an address for the old Chief, wouldn't it be great to remember him too on his September 1st birthday.  He lives with daughter Melissa and his son-in-law James and their last name is deOcampo-Vincents.



News Release
Date: August 15, 2008
CG District 11

The Coast Guard's oldest enlisted retiree
Story and photos by Petty Officer 1st Class Anastasia Devlin, PADET San Diego

Although he retired long before most of the Coast Guard's current members were born, Emil de Ocampo shows off a battered, weathered Coast Guard ring with the pride of a sailor just graduated from boot camp.

Like de Ocampo, the ring is old (photo inset below), but shines brightly.  

De Ocampo enlisted at the age of 23 in 1930 in New York. He became a steward's mate, personally attending to the commanding officers of famous Coast Guard cutters like the Walnut, the Spencer, and the Campbell over his 25-year career.  

The veteran now lives with his daughter and son-in-law, Melissa and James Vincent, in San Diego. His shadow box of medals and insignia gleams on the mantle, attributing to the retired chief's rich and story-filled history.



Even as he nears 101 years old, de Ocampo has fond memories of patrolling for bootleggers off the coast of New York, making delicious apple pies and steaks for captains, managing supply offices and the wardroom mess, and handing the Coast Guard's famous canine mascot, Sinbad.

"That dog used to go with us ashore, with the sailors," said de Ocampo, chatting with his son-in-law. "He'd stay with us under the table drinking beer. He was very respectful."

His son-in-law asked, "Did you give him any beer?"  
"Ehhhh," said de Ocampo with a wry smile. "He don't get drunk. The guys did."

He remembers taking Sinbad to play around the "air base" at Cape May while his ship, the Mohawk, was in port, washing him in the captain's shower room, and letting Sinbad eat from a "little scrap tub" of meat in the captain's cabin. Dating the story, he even mentioned that Sinbad liked to sleep on the "wooden decks" of the Coast Guard cutter.
 
In one story, de Ocampo talked about the commanding officer liking Sinbad so much that the dog got away with nearly everything, and being Sinbad's handler, so did de Ocampo.

"That dog, when he was playing, and he caught the stick, he'd bark. The officer [of the day] would be sleeping, would say, ‘Shut up,' -- they'd be sleeping and they didn't like that.  They couldn't get too mad because it was the captain's dog, they'd get mad and they'd blame me, but they couldn't do anything to me, because it was the captain's dog."

De Ocampo talked about how much the crew loved Sinbad, and how much the dog's prescence increased the morale of the troops. Sinbad even knew tricks.  "Oh, lots!," said the World War II veteran, his eyes alight. "I'd just play with him. He could jump, [he'd do] anything you'd tell him."  

De Ocampo said the dog also seemed to have an understanding of the Coast Guard's serious mission. "When we were on patrol, that dog don't mess around," he said, remembering that the mascot would stay where he was supposed to within the ship's boundaries.
  
He speaks from a comfortable seat in his home, and his face becomes animated as memories from more than six decades ago flood back. Although more hard of hearing and restricted in movement than a year or two ago, the chief's age melts away when he recounts the stories
of the past, and his obvious pleasure at serving in the Coast Guard continues long past his days in uniform.  

NOTE:  Chief De Ocampo passed over the bar on October 13, 2008.  RIP
R.I.P. Chief, you are relieved of your watch. 

Press Release

[BuoyJumper]

A sentence worth remembering
July 1, 2005
by Susan Blake, James McGranachan

"The Coast Guard is comprised of great men and women who are incredibly
positive role models with impeccable work ethics. Each time we've worked
with them on an intervention, the results have been stellar, and we are
confident this time we will be equally successful with Adam."
--Judge Glenda Hatchett


New York Coast Guard Auxiliary's Lady B, the former cutter Point Brown WPB-82362.  Owner and Skipper Stew Sutherland at the helm.

Shealine Black knew she had to intervene when her 15-year old son, Adam Reid, began getting into trouble. So, she emailed TV courtroom Judge Glenda Hatchett and asked for some assistance. The producers of the show responded, and Adam had to face Judge Hatchett. The judge "sentenced" Adam to do some "hard time" with the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Adam reported to the Tottenville Marina, in Staten Island, N.Y., to satisfy his "sentence" aboard the Auxiliary boat Lady B. When he arrived, he was introduced to Seaman David Simonds of Activities New York. Adam was led to believe that Simonds was another troubled youth, when in fact the Coast Guardsmen was there to lend a hand.

Under the supervision of BM3 Chris Taylor, Station New York, the show followed the two young men as they prepared the Lady B to get underway.

Stew Sutherland, the captain and owner of the 82-foot Lady B explained, "There's a lot of maintenance and heavy lifting that needs to be completed before we cast-off. For instance, we'll send Adam into the two-foot high crawl space below the galley and have him insert several 50 pound ballasts blocks to balance out the boat." Adam and Simonds also scrubbed the port side of the vessel.

By noon it was time to start the engines and case off. It was also time to reveal Simonds true identity. Simonds explained to Adam that he was once a troubled kid. He shared his insights with Adam and recounted how he turned his life around.

On patrol, Taylor kept a watchful eye on Adam. Taylor and the auxiliarists instructed him on crew responsibilities and various aspects of seamanship.

"I think it's great to be involved in a show that makes a difference in the lives of young people," said Taylor. "Today we hope to convey the importance of teamwork, reliability, and responsibility to a young person whose family is reaching out for assistance."

The Lady B met a 41-foot patrol boat just inside the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on the Staten Island side of the harbor to conduct training. This break in the patrol mission for training helps the Coast Guard and the Auxiliary prepare for emergency situations and builds camaraderie.

For countless auxiliary volunteers, security patrols in the air or afloat is a part of their regular lives. Last year the Coast Guard Auxiliary logged more than 644,498 volunteer hours.

Adam boarded the 41-footer to get a first-hand look at Coast Guard teamwork in action. He watched intently as the crewmen prepared the heaving lines to throw over to the Lady B. He began to understand how their skill and precision from hours of practice would payoff in the event of a real-world situation.

After training with the patrol boat crew, it was off to the Marine Ocean Terminal at Bayonne for a quick break, some fellowship, and of course, food! Unknown to Adam, while at the dock, his mother was brought aboard.

It was now time for the Lady B to return to its homeport. It was a full day for Adam--standing a bow watch, working the lines, learning navigation, training with Coast Guard personnel, and finally taking the helm.

The wheelhouse provided Adam with a panoramic view of the harbor. Adam was given a briefing on the bridge and then took the helm. It was the culmination of a day of training that ended with the ultimate responsibility, setting a steady course and sticking to it.

To take control of the helm of the Lady B, formerly the CGC Point Brown, was a rare opportunity for any young person.

As Adam grew more confident at the wheel, his mother was brought up to the second deck to look in on him.

Adam's mother Shealine enjoyed meeting and learning about the auxiliarists who were helping her son. On the mess deck near the end of the patrol, she thanked some of the tired volunteers, explaining, "I did not know about such a group. You come out here and work for nothing except your country. You are good people and I'm glad my son has met you. It's so inspiring to see all these volunteers working together, trying to make a difference."

Satisfied with the footage, the producers, cameramen and sound technicians relaxed and put their equipment down. The sun had set, there was chill in the air, and they had been on their feet for more than 12 hours.

For the Lady B it was another successful mission. Sutherland hoped that Adam had a positive experience with the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Story and Photos by PA3 Susan Blake, ACT New York and James McGranachan, PADET New York

Reference Article