Guard Save

CG Saves Three From Stricken Vessel

The Coast Guard saved three people from a distressed sailing vessel in 8- to12-foot seas 160 nautical miles east of Cape Henry early this morning. A Coast Guard C-130 aircraft and an HH-60 helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City combined rescue efforts with a 670-foot container vessel, the Horizon Hawaii, to bring three people to safe ground. The Coast Guard received a call at 9:53 p.m. Saturday that the deck of the 44-foot sailing vessel Gina, homeported in Miami, was awash. The boat had lost its sails and steering, and its fuel system had been contaminated. The Horizon Hawaii was on the scene, but couldn’t bring the sailors safely aboard the container ship. The ship immediately called the Coast Guard for assistance. By 9:57 p.m., Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City was preparing to launch the C-130 and HH-60. Around midnight, a rescue swimmer from the HH-60 was assisting the three sailors, one by one, into a rescue basket that was hoisted into the hovering helicopter. The survivors were then flown to the Coast Guard air station and released.

Coast Guard Saves Foundering Barge

The Coast Guard helped save a sinking barge today on the Elizabeth River near the south end of Naval Station Norfolk. The 20-person crew of the dredging barge Pullen, a 150-ft. barge owned by the Norfolk Dredging Company, saw the Coast Guard Cutter Block Island underway and called for help at 10:30 a.m. The crew had a malfunction in their dredging gear that began flooding their barge’s forward hold at a rate of approximately 400 gallons a minute

CG Air Station Crews Honored

The Coast Guard Unit Commendation will be awarded to the men and women of Air Station New Orleans at a ceremony on Thursday at the Naval Air Station in Belle Chasse. Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans will receive the award for exceptionally meritorious service from July 5, 2000 to February 28, 2002 for the execution of numerous search and rescue, Homeland Security, Marine Environmental Protection, and Presidential support missions throughout the Eighth District.

This Day in Coast Guard History – August 16

1918- Keeper John Allen Midgett and the crew of Station No. 179 at Chicamacomico, North Carolina rescued the crew of the mined British tanker SS Mirlo.  All but one of the crew were named Midgett and each received the Gold Lifesaving Medal for their actions in saving the crew amid burning oil and wreckage.  1941-The Honolulu Coast Guard District was transferred to the Navy. 1999-For the first time weapons were fired from a Coast Guard HITRON helicopter "to execute the

This Day in U.S. Coast Guard History – February 3

1801- Treaty of peace with France was ratified on this date, thereby ending the "Quasi-War," in which cutters of the Revenue Marine had rendered outstanding service. 1880- Date of a terrific gale on the New Jersey coast. Six vessels came ashore with 47 persons on board all but two survived. Nineteen USLSS crewmen won Gold Life-Saving Medals during the rescue of the persons aboard the wrecked George Taulane.

U.S. Coast Guard Chief's House Testimonies

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Bob Papp testifies before two U.S. House of Representatives sub-committees on the USCG Fiscal Year 2014 budget request. At both hearings the Commandant led his opening statement with a message of condolence to the victims of the terrorism attack in Boston, and described the Coast Guard’s active role in the response. In his written testimony the Commandant stated: “Every day the Coast Guard acts to prevent and respond to an array of threats that

Man Rescued After Fall From Cruise Ship

An Arizona man who fell from a cruise liner off St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands was rescued after three hours in the water this weekend in what Coast Guard officials said was a lucky escape. Eric Angel, 20, fell from the bow of the Nordic Empress at about 4 a.m. on Saturday morning, according to Lt. Johnny Gonzalez of the Coast Guard in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Angel, from Phoenix, Arizona, was rescued three hours later north of St Thomas island and taken to hospital to be treated for a

U.S. Coast Guard's First National Security Cutter Christened

The first new U.S. Coast Guard high endurance cutter to be built in more than 35 years was christened Bertholf (WMSL 750) before 1,000 enthusiastic guests at Northrop Grumman's shipyard. The Veterans Day christening ceremony of the Coast Guard's first National Security Cutter (NSC) honored Coast Guard veterans several of whom attended the ceremony. As she smashed the bottle of champagne across the new ship's bow, Meryl Chertoff, ship's sponsor and wife of Department of

This Day in Coast Guard History – Jan. 11

1882- At 9 a.m during a thick snowstorm, the schooner A .F. Ames of Rockland, Maine, was bound from Perth Amboy to Boston with a crew of seven persons. She stranded during a thick snowstorm five hundred yards east of Race Point and one mile and three-quarters west of Station No. 6, Second District. The vessel was discovered by the patrol and the life-saving crew boarded her at 9:15 o’clock. She was leaking and pounding heavily. The pumps were manned to keep the water down

This Day in Coast Guard History – August 4, 2010

1790-Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton's proposal to build ten cutters to protect the new nation's revenue (Stat. L. 145, 175).  Alternately known as the system of cutters, Revenue Service, and Revenue-Marine this service would officially be named the Revenue Cutter Service (12 Stat. L., 639) in 1863.  The cutters were placed under the control of the Treasury Department.  This date marks the officially recognized birthday of the Coast Guard.