9Th District News

The Coast Guard assisted three people Saturday afternoon after three flares were sighted from shore near Hamburg, New York. The names of those rescued are not being released and there are no photos or video available for this case. Shortly before 5 p.m., watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Buffalo, New York, were notified that three red flares had been sighted offshore in Lake Erie in the vicinity of Hamburg Beach in Hamburg, New York. Sector Buffalo directed the launch of a boat crew from Coast Guard Station Buffalo, aboard a 25-foot response boat and issued an urgent marine information broadcast to advise mariners of the sighting and ask them to assist if able. The crew arrived on scene and discovered a disabled 20-foot vessel with three people on board.

As National Safe Boating Week continues, the Coast Guard 9th District is reminding boaters Sunday to get a free vessel safety check from the Coast Guard Auxiliary before going out onto the lakes this boating season. The Coast Guard Auxiliary is an all-volunteer force that keeps the nation’s waterways safer and more secure by providing vessel safety checks and boating education courses. The Coast Guard recommends that all recreational boaters, including personal watercraft users and paddlers, take advantage of these free offers. Boaters who have undergone a vessel safety check recently may also find that vessel boardings by Coast Guard boarding officers could be expedited.

On the two-year anniversary of a tragic boating accident near Sandusky, Ohio, the U.S. Coast Guard is reminding Great Lakes boaters who may be thinking about venturing out on the area's lakes and rivers to consider that the water remains dangerously cold despite warming air temperatures. At the start of spring each year, Great Lakes Coast Guard crews respond to dozens of cold water accidents involving boaters lured to the lakes by warm air temperatures, and these frequently result in hypothermia and death. April 6, 2013, a father and his 12-year-old daughter went kayaking in Sandusky Bay. A friend reported them missing the following morning when the pair failed to return. They were last seen wearing sweatpants and hoodies with no life jackets.

The U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards are working to break free the motor vessel Arthur M. Anderson, which is beset in ice near Conneaut Harbor, and turn it around in Lake Erie so it can head to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, for its winter layup. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bristol Bay, a 140-foot ice-breaking tug homeported in Detroit, has been just outside of Ashtabula for several days battling 8 to 10 feet of ice in areas and brash ice up to 5 to 6 feet thick. The progress has been slow in getting into Ashtabula, so the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Griffon has been called to assist.

The Coast Guard 9th District is warning Great Lakes boaters that falling water temperatures pose safety risks even as air temperatures stay warm. The National Weather Service reports that the water temperatures in Lake Superior are already reaching 50 F, with lakes Ontario, Huron, Erie and Michigan down to 60 F after summer temperatures approaching 80 F. "Warm air temperatures can create a false sense of security for boaters," said Mike Baron, recreational boating safety specialist for the Coast Guard 9th District. "Cool water drains body heat up to 25 times faster than cool air. Great Lakes weather is unpredictable and dangerous, especially during seasonal transitions. Paddlers are at a higher risk of hypothermia, because they are more likely to get wet than power boater.

The Coast Guard 9th District, partner agencies, and Enbridge Energy Limited Partnership will conduct a full-scale oil spill response exercise in Indian River, Michigan, Wednesday. More than 200 participants from the Coast Guard; Enbridge; the Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Emmet County Office of Emergency Management; Michigan Department of Environmental Quality; and the Environmental Protection Agency, will participate in the exercise, which simulates a breach in Enbridge’s Line 5 and a worst-case discharge of light crude oil.

The Coast Guard says it has held a ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the completion of a new building at Station Fairport located in Grand River, Ohio. The new 18,000 square foot station building meets Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards and includes a modern command center, administrative offices, and training, dining and berthing spaces. Attending the ceremony were: Rear Adm. Fred Midgette, commander of the Coast Guard 9th District, Congressman Dave Joyce and many other state and local partners in the area. An attached boat maintenance facility and travel lift can fit the station’s largest boat. Newly-dredged boat moorings feature updated refueling facilities. The project includes upgraded security fencing, lighting, paving and landscaping.

Scheduled for Thursday and Friday, federal, state, local and Canadian law enforcement partners will be brought together in a multi-agency exercise designed to prepare for and prevent cross-border terrorist and criminal activity on the Niagara River, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. There are no known threats against the area, but boaters may notice increased assets of law enforcement on the water. Organized by The Monroe County Emergency Management Office, the multi-jurisdictional exercise will be sponsored by The Department of Homeland Security.

The U.S. Coast Guard 9th District informs it has jointly signed a Mutual Training Agreement, that further promotes cooperation and education opportunities between the Association’s seventeen member companies that operate cargo vessels on the Great Lakes and the Coast Guard as their primary regulatory agency. This agreement was reached under the Coast Guard’s Merchant Marine Indoctrination Ship Rider Program, which provides for valuable professional exchange opportunities for the mutual benefit of both the Coast Guard and the merchant marine industry. The MTA will allow Coast Guard marine inspectors to join a vessel’s crew while underway and act as a riding observer…

The Coast Guard 9th District honored 75 years of service from the Coast Guard Auxiliary in a ceremony at the Coast Guard Cleveland moorings today. What began as fishermen and private boaters reporting sightings of U-boats in American Coastal waters has evolved into the Coast Guard Auxiliary. The Auxiliary was established in 1939 to facilitate the operations of the Coast Guard. Starting out as the Coast Guard Reserve, it was split into a military reserve branch and auxiliary operation in February 1941. During WWII the volunteers provided search and rescue support, patrol and picket duties, port security, and limited aviation patrols. The 30,521 members of the modern day Auxiliary use 3,415 operational vessels, 236 aircraft, and 2,459 communication stations to patrol U.S.

Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary  crews across the Great Lakes rescued 9 people during multiple cases from different locations across the Coast Guard 9th District Saturday. The names of those rescued are not being released and there is no imagery or video for any of the cases. Among other cases, watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Buffalo, New York, received a report just after 10:30 a.m. of two people in the water near Lock 5 in the Oswego River in Oswego, New York, during a kayaking event. A Coast Guard Auxiliary crew was in the area doing a safety patrol for the event. The crew and a local fire department boat retrieved both of the people from the water and took them to shore. It is unknown if they were wearing life jackets and there were no injuries or medical concerns reported.

U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Neffenger relieved Vice Adm. John Currier as Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard during a change of watch ceremony at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington, D.C., Tuesday. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Bob Papp presided over the ceremony and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson attended. “It has been my honor to serve our nation as the vice commandant,” said Currier. The change-of-watch ceremony is a time-honored event preserved by rich heritage of naval tradition.

Anne Brengle, president of the Coast Guard Foundation, presented the check to Rear Adm. Fred Midgette, commander of the Coast Guard 9th District at a ceremony in Cleveland. The presentation of the check was held at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, April 28, 2014. The money will be used to build a community center at Coast Guard Sector Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Rear Adm. Midgette, commander of the Coast Guard 9th District based in Cleveland, expressed his appreciation for the donation. Pictured: US Coast Guard Foundation president Anne Brengle passes the check to Rear Adm.

With over 30 years service under his belt, Capt. John Bingaman has retired following a ceremony held at Bay Presbyterian Church in Bay Village, Ohio. Capt. Bingaman, who grew up in Greensboro, N.C., oversaw 6,000 Coast Guard active duty, reserve, civilian and auxiliary men and women serving at 77 subordinate units and on the District staff from the 9th District Headquarters at the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building in Cleveland. He is a Marine Safety and Environmental Protection Professional.

The U.S. Coast Guard and Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers are continuing to create pathways for commercial shippers throughout the Great Lakes region including the St. Lawrence Seaway, which connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. The St. Lawrence Seaway officially opened to shipping Monday, while the Welland Canal, which connects lakes Ontario and Erie, opened Friday. Although the Soo Locks officially opened for the season March 25, no commercial ships have passed through…

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) formally recognized the crew of an education vessel at a ceremony Wednesday at Coast Guard Air Station Detroit, located at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich., for saving two people when they responded to a mayday call in the Detroit River on Aug. 11, 2013. During the ceremony, Capt. Jeff Ogden, commander of Coast Guard Sector Detroit, presented Norman Raymond, Stephen Stewart and Elizabeth Nebei with the Captain David P. Dobbins Award for excellence in search and rescue.

An early and intense winter season has meant an increased demand for ice-breaking operations for the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) 9th District's icebreaking fleet, but that didn't stop the crew of Coast Guard Cutter Katmai Bay, homeported in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., from conducting important training earlier this week. Across the district, icebreaking crews logged nearly four times the five-year average of operational ice-breaking hours during the first quarter of 2014. But despite a record season for icebreaking hours by cutter crews…

The Coast Guard reported a diesel fuel discharge Tuesday afternoon from the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw while the ship was taking on fuel in the Detroit River in the vicinity of the Ambassador Bridge. The crew immediately secured the source of fuel and conducted initial clean-up operations onboard. Crewmembers also deployed boom around the fuel to prevent further spread. Coast Guard Sector Detroit pollution responders currently on scene estimate that 200-300 gallons entered the water.

A U.S. Coast Guard rescue crew from Coast Guard Air Station Detroit hoisted an injured man off of Lake St. Clair in Ontario, Canada, after the all-terrain vehicle on which he and three friends were riding overturned. The group was on an ice fishing trip when the accident occurred about 2 miles from shore. Controllers at the Coast Guard’s 9th District Command Center received a request for assistance from Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Trenton, Ontario , which was relaying the report from the Ontario Provincial Police.

The Riverine Range at Fort Knox became the mounted automatic weapons training facility for the Coast Guard 9th District in preference to an earlier site in the Great Lakes, and it has become crucial to the mission readiness of  mounted automatic weapons carriage training requirements. A chill breeze blew through the Kentucky hills as the last rays of sunlight cast their golden rays over the Fort Knox small arms range and faded into darkness. The landscape stood silent other than the occasional coyote sniffing through the underbrush or the hoot of an owl on a far away ridge.

Units from around the Coast Guard 9th District continue work on their annual retrieval of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway System seasonal aids to navigation, the largest domestic ATON recovery operation in the U.S. Operation Fall Retrieve, which affects lighted and unlighted buoys and beacons, began in mid October with a goal of retrieving 1,278 navigational aids. The operation is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 28. As of Thursday, 527 of the 1,278 aids have been decommissioned for the season. uscgnews.com

A U.S. Coast Guard air crew assisted the Canadian Coast Guard in locating an overdue boater early Monday morning in the vicinity of Bassett Island in northeastern Lake St. Clair. Just before midnight Sunday, a search-and-rescue controller at the Coast Guard 9th District command center, was contacted by a SAR controller at JRCC Trenton, requesting assistance with locating an overdue boater, who was last known to be setting fish nets in Lake St. Clair. The boater, a 60-year-old man, reportedly left shore in an 18-foot aluminum boat at 5:30 p.m., and was due to return by 7:30 p.m.

The air crew assisted Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Trenton, Ontario, with the medevac of a Canadian man injured aboard the 730-foot 'Algoma Enterprise', which was passing through the Pelee Passage in Lake Erie. The 57-year-old crew member was reportedly suffering from severe bleeding. After conferring with the on-duty flight surgeon, the 9th District's SAR controller directed the launch of an air crew aboard an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Detroit, located on Selfridge Air National Guard base in the Northern suburbs of Detroit.