The First Coast Guard District Commander, Rear Admiral Vivien S. Crea presented the Sumner I. Kimball Award for Operations Proficiency and Boat Readiness to the crew of Coast Guard Station New York on Tuesday at the Staten Island rescue station.
A Standardization Team of Coast Guard rescue boat experts from Training Center Yorktown, Va., paced the 65 men and women of Station New York through challenging written examinations, multiple rigorous drills, and thorough inspections during a four-day period last December. The station crew successfully completed this testing with its first ever Sumner I. Kimball Award after achieving a nearly perfect score, with 31 out of a potential 35 points.
“Rescue stations, like new York, bear the heavy burden of trying to save lives in peril at sea, as well as safeguarding our nation’s fisheries stocks, and providing for our homeland security in our nation’s ports and waterways,” said Chief Warrant Officer Thomas Guthlein, an inspector on the Coast Guard Standardization Team. “A station that fails an inspection threatens not only the American boating public, but severely places their own lives in danger.”
“Station New York has proven to be one of our service’s top rescue stations,” Guthlein added.
Sumner I. Kimball was the General Superintendent of the Revenue Marine Board from 1871 to 1878, which evolved into the U.S. Life Saving Service from which he retired in 1915. He is credited with setting the Life Saving
Service on the road to professionalism. The Life Saving Service expanded under his direction and he is largely credited for the Service’s reputation for honest and efficient performance of duty. The award named in his honor recognizes excellence in the Coast Guard’s rescue station community.