Coast Guard Magazine articles from December 2006

Coast Guard Magazine archives from December 2006

The commandant of the United States Coast Guard Washington, D.C. 20593-0001.
December 15, 2006... To the Men and Women of the United States Coast Guard, Since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, I have received hundreds of letters and cards from world leaders, citizens, federal agency directors, survivors, the media, Congressmen and...

Up front.
December 15, 2006... DAMAGE REPORT The CGC Decisive moors at the battered port of Gulfport, Miss., serving as a command, control and communications platform for the recently established Mississippi Coastal Recovery Base Gulfport. The base was established to...

Full force.
December 15, 2006... Winds were still howling above 60 knots when Lt. David Johnston positioned his HH-65 Dolphin helicopter over a half-submerged fishing boat in Port Sulphur, La., for one of Hurricane Katrina's first rescues. It was less than eight hours since...

Hacking, smashing and dashing: rescuers test their limits, improvise to save thousands in record time.
December 15, 2006... In the weeks that followed Hurricane Katrina, the images being showcased by the media were hard to miss--helicopter rescue crews hoisting survivors off rooftops in the flooded city of New Orleans. Trapped in flooded homes surrounded by turbid...

Ingenuity keeps helos humming.(KATRINA HEROES)
December 15, 2006... Hurricane Katrina heroes bring certain images to mind. Some of those images include rescue swimmers with axes in their hands breaking through rooftops to save people, and children wrapped in the arms of rescue swimmers being hoisted up into...

A bird's eye view.
December 15, 2006... Looking out of an Army Blackhawk helicopter over the flooded city in which he was born and raised was not how BM1 Nicholas "Fonzie" Alphonso envisioned spending part of his tour at Coast Guard Station New Orleans. As he looked out at his...

In shallow waters: Disaster Area Response Teams ply the murky waters of flooded New Orleans searching for survivors.
December 15, 2006... Cars and foreign debris submerged in the toxic waters from Lake Pontchartrain, La., surrounded MK1 Mike Adams Sept. 12, while aboard one of the Coast Guard Disaster Area Response Team's 16-foot flood boats. A Colorado-based urban search...

Sending the reserve.
December 15, 2006... PSU 309 had already been preparing for a mid-September training period when the commanding officer of the Port Clinton, Ohio, unit received a call Sept. 1 asking if they were ready to deploy to the Gulf Coast for hurricane relief. On Sept....

Ice boat summer.
December 15, 2006... In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Coast Guard responded with hundreds of personnel and multiple resource types: aircraft, cutters, vehicles, small boats and ice boats. Ice boats aren't a common resource at most Coast Guard units....

Ice boats.
December 15, 2006... Even amid the tragedy in the Gulf area, there was hope, and it came in the form of Coast Guard rescue personnel from all over the country. One particular team came from various units in the Great Lakes. It was a 42-member team that provided...

Allen's Wrench.(Reprint)
December 15, 2006... Standing in a deserted air terminal in the early morning dark of Sept. 14, America's man of the moment realized that his honeymoon had lasted not quite 24 hours. The newspapers in Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen's hands all led with...

Flying high.
December 15, 2006... The Cessna 210 only seats four people. It's a tight squeeze, and there's hardly room for personal belongings or extra baggage. Although the plane may be a little small, its purpose after Hurricane Katrina proved very big. While Coast Guard...

Reaching out.
December 15, 2006... THE COAST GUARD LENDS A HAND TO THE GULF COAST'S VIETNAMESE FISHING COMMUNITY. Imagine that you are a refugee in a foreign country. You've barely escaped a dangerous war zone. Now you live the precarious life of a fisherman. Some 30,000...

Devoted care: chaplains help rescuers with their spiritual health.
December 15, 2006... Besides shipmates and commands, rescuers and responders found another resource they could count on for maintaining their mental and spiritual well-being--chaplains. Following Hurricane Katrina, a Chaplain Emergency Response Team was...

Lending an ear: CISM teams travel the Gulf Coast helping peers cope with Katrina effects.
December 15, 2006... Does visiting 22 Coast Guard units in 14 days, in post-hurricane conditions, sound like ideal temporary duty? For six members of the Honolulu Maritime Safety and Security Team 91107, the frantic pace from home was not only rewarding but the...

Shipmate.
December 15, 2006... As Hurricane Katrina churned up the Gulf of Mexico with its sights set on the Deep South, a Coast Guard petty officer sat alone in a barracks room in New York while his entire family faced the wrath of the storm without him. EM2 Larry...

Support from within.
December 15, 2006... The Coast Guard is well known for coming to the aid of those in need. The rescue and recovery operations directly following Hurricane Katrina were a testament of the service's dedication and commitment to serving the public. Just as strong...

Family ties.
December 15, 2006... When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, everything along its path of demolition conceded to its wrath. Thousands of people in the Gulf Coast region were forced to flee their homes and businesses while their futures lay uncertain. ...

Before & after: if these walls could talk--a personal reflection from one of Station Gulfport's own.
December 15, 2006... Camouflage Hummers, tractors, bulldozers, police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks filled the city. There were very few places with electricity or running water and the rumors of disease were spreading rapidly. The city looked like weapons of...

Staying in the LOOP: CGC Northland conducts security boardings on ships stopped by storm.
December 15, 2006... Most shipping traffic headed to ports along the Gulf Coast came to a screeching halt when the Coast Guard made mandatory closures 24 hours before Hurricane Katrina slammed into the coastlines. With commercial vessels stacking up outside the...

All is still, but is it safe?
December 15, 2006... Overwhelmed by the shocking images of twisted trucks and bare foundations, few grief-stricken citizens may have stopped to think about the seemingly smaller yet potentially deadly material that took flight during Hurricane Katrina's more than...

Oily aftermath.
December 15, 2006... A clear visible black film covers dozens of neighborhoods and protected marshes and swamp lands along the mighty Mississippi River. After the water receded, the environmental impact of Hurricane Katrina and Rita's fury could be seen on the...

Towering transmission: Rescue 21 tools restore vital communications in Katrina's aftermath.
December 15, 2006... In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Rescue 21 team worked tirelessly to restore full maritime SAR/Command and Control communications in the Venice and Port Sulphur region of Louisiana as towers lay sidelined or destroyed. Even...

Ice cream man: stop him while he's passing by.
December 15, 2006... The Air Station New Orleans Command Master Chief, AETCM Tim Sheffler, was a shining star among many during the rescue and recovery operations of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. His commitment to all Coast Guardsmen from units throughout the Gulf...

Making the impossible possible.
December 15, 2006... After Hurricane Katrina hit the New Orleans area, the majority of the 8th District staff components moved to the federal building in St. Louis, which is home to the Integrated Support Command, Marine Safety Office and Electronic Support Unit....

Reeling from Rita.
December 15, 2006... Hurricane Rita's force caused the Gulf of Mexico's waters to push northward, inundating the low-lying areas of Southwestern Louisiana and stranding residents. An Air Station New Orleans HH-65B launched to search for survivors in the widespread...

Atlantic City air crew recounts Katrina rescues.
December 15, 2006... As is always the case in the Coast Guard, flexibility was the word of the day for rescue crews in Mobile, Ala. When a four-man crew left together to do their part in the rescue efforts in New Orleans, they soon began operating with whatever...

PSC instills hope in many evacuees.
December 15, 2006... The Personnel Service Center stepped into action when Hurricane Katrina knocked out seven Servicing Personnel Offices, which impacted over 3,000 Coast Guardsmen. The PSC staff worked long hours counseling members and instilling hope during an...

Night vision.
December 15, 2006... EYES ON THE HORIZON The motor tanker, Energy Spirit, viewed from the CGC Northland, while in transit just outside the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port Sept. 16.

Camp Katrina.
December 15, 2006... We've all heard about the heroics Coast Guard men and women performed from Pascagoula, Miss., to Houston, but they were not the only heroes who were performing above expectations. They were just the ones on the front lines. The first week...

Operation Life Ring.
December 15, 2006... When Auxiliarist Bruce Dyleski and his wife, Joy, returned to their home in Waveland, Miss., Sept. 7, they found little that resembled their former life. Their cozy home and the neighborhood around it were flattened by Hurricane Katrina. As...

An army of ANTs.
December 15, 2006... Katrina's eye made landfall in Buras, La., where the Officer in Charge of Aids to Navigation Team Venice, BMC Brad Vandiver, and his wife and son lived in a Coast Guard-owned house. Needless to say, they don't live in Buras anymore, nor does...

One CO's story.
December 15, 2006... The CGC Clamp was en route from Bayou Labatre, Ala., to its homeport of Galveston, Texas late in the month of August. While transiting in Mississippi Sound the Clamp experienced a main space fire in one of the ship's service generators and...

Canadian beacon: Operation Unison.
December 15, 2006... An unfamiliar vessel sailed through the warm tropical waters off the coast of Key West, Fla. The hull made of double reinforced steel, red as an apple, prominently displaying a maple leaf for the world to see. It was the Canadian coast...

Communicating in a crisis.
December 15, 2006... Watching Hurricane Katrina head across Florida as a Category 1, and then back into the Gulf of Mexico on Aug. 25, one couldn't help but feel bad for the people of Florida who appeared to be in the crosshairs of yet another hurricane. But...

Telling the Coast Guard story in Katrina's aftermath.
December 15, 2006... As the massive Hurricane Katrina rescue operations began along the Gulf Coast, Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Carter packed his bags and headed to Baton Rouge to set up the federal government's Joint Information Center. "I came down with a blank...

The public responds: these are samples of the e-mails sent to the Coast Guard from fellow citizens. They are unedited except for name deletions.
December 15, 2006... Thank you for all your help with the hurricane disaster. You guys have been the first ones out there helping people and saving so many lives. I think you guys / gals are the most awesome group of people!!!! Tyra H., San Diego, CA Dear...

Aftermath.
December 15, 2006... AST3 John Calhoun, Air Station Corpus Christi, was one of more than 4,000 Coast Guard personnel who responded to the relief efforts in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.