Some Coast Guard history
Eggs sends us a link to Fox News about an event that happened 62 years ago on February 18, 1952 when Petty Officer 1st Class Bernie Webber, Petty Officer 2nd Class Andy Fitzgerald, Seaman Ervin Maske and Seaman Richard Lively took off from the station at Chatham Harbor, Massachusetts in a 36-foot wooden boat to rescue the survivors of the SS Fort Mercer and SS Pendleton which had broken up off the coast. Their small wooden craft was built to carry 12 men, and there were 76 men clinging to the hulls of the two ships;
“The first wave they encountered was so big and so ferocious that it picked up their little life boat and tossed it into the air, slamming it back onto the sea.”
“They lost their compass. Their windshield was smashed. The glass was now embedded in the captain’s skin,” [Casey Sherman, co-author of “The Finest Hours”] said.
Other boats were headed for the scene as well, including five Coast Guard cutters. But it was the faster, smaller CG-36500 that would be the star of the effort, in which 70 of the stranded sailors were saved. Reaching the stern section of the Pendleton, the four found 33 men hanging on for their lives. They herded 32 of the men onto the boat. One man, identified as George “Tiny” Myers, died when the rescue boat collided with the Pendleton’s stern, pinning him between the two vessels.
The small craft returned to Chatham Station with 32 survivors, while other ships rescued the others, but according to the Fox News story, the Coasties never consider the rescue a success because they hadn’t saved “Tiny” Myers. CG-36500 has been restored to a museum and you can visit it in Orleans, Massachusetts.
Category: Historical
Isn’t their motto something along the lines of “You have to go out. You don’t have to come back in”? Coast Guard SAR have some big, brass shiny ones.
Thank you Sgt K. Back in 1973 I had the privilege to man CG 36496 at Chetco River Sta, Brookings ,Oregon. She was one of the last 36 footers in use at the time. Most of the others had been turned into playground equipment or hauled up and burned on the beach. I remember a photo around that time of several of them burning on a beach somewhere. 36496 was a prime example of her class. She had been meticulously maintained and refitted several times during her service. Her original engine had been replaced with a new GMC diesel at some point. We used her every day for Bar Patrol and pre-positioned SAR boat when the Saint George’s Reef Light house, off Crescent City, CA was resupplied by sea. I spent many hours on that great old boat. It was there that I learned that a few drops of laundry bluing added to the white paint produced a white that hurt your eyes when the sun shined on it. Alas, she to was removed from service and used as a memorial monument. At least she was not burned like many of her sisters.
Roger, thank you and your CG brethren for your service. Many folks here in Oregon owe a debt to the CG for their heroic work at our many dangerous bars. And the helo pilots and rescue swimmers for ocean and cliff side rescues.
I have always had a soft spot for the Coast Guard.
My grandfather was a Coastguards-man during World War II, and served on attack transports in the Pacific. His first station after boot camp (which was held at Coney Island- Joe Louis (I think- it was a famous boxer from that era) was one of his instructors) was Montauk Light. He was off duty on a Sunday morning when a lone beach sentry came upon 5 men in civilian clothes burying a rubber boat. They paid him to keep his mouth shut. He took the money, and proceeded to report the contact, which set off a shit storm. They were Nazi saboteurs who were put ashore by sub.
Up to that point, their patrols were carrying fake wooden rifles, and the occasional sidearm. The next morning, trucks rolled up with Thompsons (with the 50 rd drums), rifles, and water cooled machine guns for fixed positions along the beach. Patrols were now 2 man, with one rifle and one Thompson. It was the Thompson that eventually got him transferred to sea duty 🙂
When he passed away in 2006, the Coastguard sent an honor guard to his grave side ceremony. they were a great group of men and women.
Did you guys know that Slick Willie wanted to remove the Coasties from the Chicago area? Mayor Daley put his Irish foot down hard on that idea.
Yeah, they’re the ones to go out and rescue dogs and people that are stupid enough to go out on Lake Michigan when it freezes. They’re the ones who go looking for lost boaters on the Great Lakes, and send us pictures of the ice cutters cracking through three feet of ice on the Lakes to keep shipping channels open.
They’re the ones who fly over my house in that orange-and-silver helicopter, so I go out and wave at them.
@4 Actually former Heavyweight Champ Jack Dempsey was probably who you’re thinking of. Joe Louis served in the Army in WWII. Dempsey served in the CG and was a physical fitness instructor at Boot camp.
http://www.uscg.mil/history/faqs/jackdempsey.asp
In my day the USCG wqs smaller than the NY City Police department By 1979 when I got out we were having trouble manning all our ships and stations. Carter had three or four Sec. Trans in his term. It was a cluster fuck. We were tasked to perform SAR, Boating safety and Law Enforcement fp the San Francisco Bay. The City of San Francisco disbanded their Harbor police unit so we had to pick up the slack. I was an ET at Group SF and we worked all the Lights and beacons from PT Reyes to Pidgin Pt down by Salinas. I was tuning a beacon in the light house on the North side of the Golden Gate when an earth quake rolled under it. The light is perched on a rock just off shore and is accessible only by a wooden suspension bridge. It scared the hell out of us. Good duty but way too much work for the number of people available. At the same time, a pal of mine was stationed on 378 WEHC and they has CPO’s standing underway OOD, The CO didn’t trust his ensigns to stand the watches. Pitiful.
That should be WHEC, and they “had CPO’s”
@3 “…Many folks here in Oregon owe a debt to the CG for their heroic work at our many dangerous bars.”
Gee, I always thought that was a Navy mission! 😉
Mustang…that’s just during Rose Festival.
The Pendleton Rescue was listed 3 of the top ten Coast Guard Rescue missions in 2007 as part of its 217th existence anniversary. Reference http://a0130905.uscgaux.info/News%20Documents/Top_10_Press_Release.pdf and the list http://www.uscg.mil/lantarea/docs/USCG%20Top%2010%20Rescues.doc
Number two on the list is the Prinsendam Rescue. A mission I participated in, http://alaska.net/~jcassidy/prinsendam.htm .
It’s never a successful SAR mission when we are unable to rescue someone..Its a harrowing experience and nightmare inducing when you know you tried your damnedest to save some one and you can’t…even worse when it goes from Search and Rescue to Search and Recover…
@6. That must be who he was talking about. I’m not sure why Joe Louis was stuck in my head.
My grandfather had some great stories about the war (at least to me). Of course, he also saw a lot of carnage. One story has stuck with me:
His ship was an attack transport, so they were involved in island invasions, and their landing craft would bring wounded and dead out to the ships. On one occasion, a LC tried to bring a large number of dead Marines out to his ship to be stored in the refrigerator.
My grandfather said the smell was terrible, and as they pulled aside the ship, one of the officers on board asked what they (the sailors on the LC) were doing. When they replied that they were bringing the bodies out to be stored in the cooler, the officer told them in no uncertain terms that that was not happening. The officer told the sailors to take the bodies out and dump them at sea.
Unfortunately for that officer, one of the Marines was the son of a politician, or some other VIP back home. All hell broke loose over the order, and at least one officer was court martial-ed, and I think the Captain was relieved of command. Apparently, it wasn’t the first time that it happened.