Coasties and Mark Wahlberg’s Pain & Gain
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Category Archives: Coast Guard
Take Me Out to to Armed Forces Night
A ballplayer spends a good piece of his life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time. –Jim Bouton
Rear Adm. Sandra Stosz Has Her Say
I am neither agreeing with Rear Adm. Sandra Stosz, nor disagreeing with her below statement. But I am relieved that she is female. It makes what she is saying perhaps more acceptable:
Rear Adm. Sandra Stosz, in an interview with The (New London, Conn.) Day newspaper, attempted to contextualize reports of unwanted sexual advances among recruits.
“At a time when they are exploring their identity, it’s somewhat natural to have people experiment with what it takes to attract a person of the opposite sex,” she said, according to the March 17 article. “If, one time, a guy or gal is clumsy or stupid and tries to touch someone and they’re repulsed, they learn. Someone who goes around and keeps trying many times, that’s a different kind of behavior than someone who is awkward and experimenting.”
That may be the wrong way of looking at it, but I gotta be honest. . .
Coastie Gunslingers
Down on the Bayou
Petty Officer First Class Russell Matthews Returns
The military is a job, a profession. And at a job, you have to show up for work. It is not hard, but some folks struggle with it. Petty Officer First Class Russell Matthews was either AWOL or had some sort of odd health issue:
Petty Officer First Class Russell Matthews
A Coast Guardsman has reappeared after vanishing and being declared a missing person more than three months ago, Honolulu police and the Coast Guard said Tuesday.
Petty Officer First Class Russell Matthews returned home Sunday night, police said. Police say he was incoherent and taken to a hospital for observation.
Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Gene Maestas said the service doesn’t know where Matthews, a Hawaii-based rescue swimmer, has been and what he’s been doing since his wife reported him missing on Oct. 9.
Coast Guard investigators dispatched to see him confirmed his identity after he called his command from Castle Medical Center in the Honolulu suburb of Kailua, Maestas said. He’s now being evaluated at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu.
Coast Guard investigators looking into his disappearance won’t question him until he’s released by doctors, Maestas said. But the service will probe the incident.
Strange story. . .
Maritime Lieutenant Scores Olympic Medalist
Michelle Kwan, a two-time Olympic medalist, married LT Clay Pell of the United States Coast Guard. The wedding was the usual star-studded affair:
About 250 guests attended the ceremony, including Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee and his wife, Stephani, as well as Olympic champions Brian Boitano, Dick Button and Dorothy Hamill,
Pell, a 31-year-old JAG lawyer and Coast Guard lieutenant, works on the White House’s national security staff.
He is the grandson of the late Rhode Island Sen. Claiborne Pell, who reportedly established Pell Grants to assist college students with in paying their tuition 40 years ago.
Kwan is a public policy envoy with the U.S. State Department and the most decorated figure skater in American history.
She won 43 championships, including five World titles, nine national crowns, as well as the silver medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics and bronze at the 2002 Games.
Michelle Kwan – a two-time Olympic medalist, marries LT Clay Pell
I wonder if he received a Pell Grant in college? Good job and many blessings, Coastie. (Congrats too, to Michelle Pell for the maritime move. I hear those Coast Guard types are very good at search and seizure operations.)
Filming the Coast Guard
The official Coast Guard blog just released its videos of the year. And the first place nod went to the crews of Coast Guard Station Coos Bay, Oregon in a video titled Surf’s Up.
Second place went to Train So Others May Live, filmed by Air Station Atlantic City, New Jersey. The video was filmed and edited by Petty Officer 1st Class Stephen Williams, and features rescue swimmer Jaime Vanacore as she shows us how she runs her training.
Third place was taken by the Advanced Rescue Helicopter School, which focuses on a unique training school out of Air Station Astoria, Oregon. This video was filmed and edited by Petty Officer 3rd Class Nate Littlejohn and shows us how aircrews prepare in the most extreme weather conditions.
Chief Terrell Horne, KIA
I’ve often admired the Coast Guard, they have a challenging mission and are patient with both the civilians they rescue and the criminals they apprehend. But when I read Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Terrell Horne III was killed by a drug smuggler, I got angry. The Halibut (a patrol cutter) was rammed by a drug boat and the Chief received a mortal head wound. The sole good news is that they caught the murderers.
Not a Mutiny on the HMS Bounty
WIthout doubt, you have seen the tale of the HMS Bounty. It is reassuring to read of the Coast Guard’s usual, quiet, great work. Usual, quiet, and great. One too many adjective. But all true. I’ll leave ‘em in. . .
Drug Subs Inbound
Are three quarters of drug shipments, sent by submarine from South America, sneaking by our Coast Guard? I’ve heard of Bigfoot, the sub, but we may be facing a fleet of Bigfeet!
Coast Guard Plans First Fitness Test
Is it possible that the Coast Guard is preparing for its first physical fitness test? I am surprised that it took so long for our lighter blue brethren to implement a PRT. . .
Coast Guard Crows Save Russell Crowe’s Day
Two Petty Officers from the United States Coast Guard, Robert Swieciki and Thomas Watson, helped rescue Russell Crowe after he got lost kayaking off Long Island. This truly was a case of the crows rescuing the Crowe. (Or do Coast Guard Petty Officers not call themselves crows, like we do in the Navy?)
I like how the Coasties emphasize that they did not “rescue” Russell Crowe. Sure.
Five Teams, Seven Fights
Fruit Mongers
Remember this story, the Coast Guard and the fruit? Got some pics of it:
Tim Walcutt, of National Response Corp., and William Scott, of Cliff Berry Inc., toss fruit into Bear Cut in Virgina Key Beach, Fla., during the Tidal Inlet Protection Strategy exercise Thursday. Bear Cut was chosen from other inlets in Miami-Dade County because of the complexity from fast currents and its focal point into the environmentally sensitive habitat of Biscayne Bay.
The Coast Guard Is Turning to Fruit
What sounds strange, but really is not: the US Coast Guard is turning to fruit, floating fruit, to test the Tidal Inlet Protection Strategy in Coast Guard’s Miami-based 7th District.