Craig Neubecker News

The U.S. Navy’s newest amphibious transport dock ship and U.S. Coast Guard medium range recovery helicopters trained together in several ship and helicopter exercises Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014, while transiting the Gulf of Mexico. During the training, two Coast Guard MH-60T Jayhawk helicopters based out of Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile in Mobile, Ala., flew parts and supplies to the pre-commissioning unit USS Somerset, conducted more than 60 day and night-vision goggle deck landings…

On Sunday, December 17, 2000 a raging storm was brewing off the coast of Virginia. Record-breaking waves were measuring anywhere from 30-40 ft. and the wind was gusting at about 70 knots. In the middle of the Atlantic, (220 miles off the coast of Norfolk, Va. to be exact), a 600 ft. (182.8 m), 21,000-ton cruise ship was in trouble, its crewmembers ready to abandon ship into the cold ocean. With only seconds to decide the fate of his vessel, the captain of the Sea Breeze I, placed a mayday call via the vessel's Inmarsat Standard-C distress feature, indicating that the now-defunct Premier Cruise Lines' vessel might sink. By Regina P. The dramatic rescue of SeaBreeze's 34 crewmembers began on that Sunday morning, when Eileen Joyce received an alert at COMSAT Mobile's Southbury, Conn.