With 1,134 votes, the Coast Guard’s winner for 2012 Video of the Year shows boats being pelted by huge waves as Coast Guardsmen duck behind the boat’s dashboard to avoid catching the full force of the water. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLIMy-0p9tk&list=PLgOje37c-b1McebLFEauWZU9EDnD5FJzt&index=7[/youtube] The winner was announced yesterday on Coast Guard Compass, the service’s blog. The top video, titled “Surf’s Up!”, was compiled from first person footage shot by Coast Guardsmen from Station Coos Bay in Oregon. The second place video, which received 933 votes, showed a day in the training of a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, and the third place video with 561 votes…
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This weekend, volunteers laid wreaths on military graves across the country as part of Wreaths Across America. Service members at Coast Guard Station Lake Worth Inlet in Florida also laid wreaths on the water Dec. 15 to honor those lost at sea. Five years ago, Coast Guard Auxiliarist Ed Greenfield realized that even if every grave on land was covered, some who perished while serving their country were being forgotten, according to the Coast Guard’s official blog. The first annual Wreaths Over the Water memorial was held on Dec. 15, 2007 at Station Lake Worth Inlet. This year, representatives of…
Ready for some real-life spirit spots? The Coast Guard’s contest for best rescue video of 2012 begins Saturday, but if you can’t wait until then, the service released a compilation video of footage from the top 10 rescues of the year as a sneak peek on Monday. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuwB7OOR2Uk&list=PLgOje37c-b1McebLFEauWZU9EDnD5FJzt&index=1[/youtube] Still have a craving for intense rescues on the high seas? The Coast Guard will post a new video each day from Saturday through the end of the year to their Youtube page. You can vote for your favorite on the Coast Guard’s Facebook page by liking the video. The winner will…
Usually when the Coast Guard is involved, lives are on the line. However, in this case, it’s 1.4 million pounds of frozen seafood at risk. The tug Polar Wind and barge Unimak Trader ran aground near Dutch Harbor in Alaska on Nov. 13, The Dutch-Harbor Fisherman reported. The Coast Guard rescued five crew members; none were injured. Now, over a week later, the Coast Guard is beginning to plug leaks and trying to save over 1,475,000 pounds of frozen seafood in 30 operational refrigeration containers. Generators on board are still functional and keeping the containers cool, the newspaper reported. A…
Move over “Act of Valor” and “Battleship.” It’s time for the Coast Guard to get some time on the silver screen. Tim Van Patten, who has worked on HBO hits like “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City” and “Boardwalk Empire,” is in talks with Disney to direct “The Finest Hours,” a Coast Guard drama based on the book of the same name, according to Variety. The film tells the story of the 1952 Coast Guard rescue of 84 men during a blizzard when two oil tankers were torn in half off the coast of New England. The screen adaptation of…
Ice skating superstar Michelle Kwan is engaged to Lt. Clay Pell, a U.S. Coast Guardsman and director for strategic planning on the National Security staff at the White House, People Magazine reported. The two met in April 2011. Pell proposed Sept. 3, on Block Island, off the coast of Rhode Island and told the magazine he had no doubt Kwan would say yes. According to Pell’s bio on the 2011-2012 White House Fellows website, he graduated first in his class from the Coast Guard Direct Commission Officer School. As a judge advocate general for the Coast Guard, he regularly works…
The Coast Guard can do more to keep Florida manatees safe thanks to an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agreement, announced Sept. 6, means Fish and Wildlife can tap the Coast Guard for help rescuing sea cows that become stranded in shallow water or tangled in nets. The Coast Guard is authorized to provide operational assistance, logistical support and safety standby, according to a press release. Before signing the agreement, the Coast Guard was only able to protect endangered manatees by enforcing boating speed limits in manatee zones and fining those boaters who go to fast.…
Despite the Coast Guard’s warnings to stay safe on the water this holiday weekend,one Hollywood star got stranded in Long Island Sound. Russell Crowe was kayaking with his friend in Cold Spring Harbor off Long Island Sound on Sept. 1, according to US Magazine. The pair lost track of time and headed in to shore at dusk. They landed at Huntington Beach, N.Y., 10 miles from where they began their journey. Coast Guardsmen from Coast Guard Station Eatons Neck were patrolling the area when they heard Crowe yell from shore around 10pm, the magazine reported. The actor and his friend…
Today, the Coast Guard is celebrating its 222 birthday with events at stations across the country. The Revenue Cutter Service was created Aug. 4, 1790 by President George Washington, according to the Coast Guard History Program. He allowed for the construction of 10 cutters to enforce trade laws and prevent smuggling. The Coast Guard received its current name in 1915, when Congress merged together the Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Life Saving Service. The service got a special “Happy Birthday” from Chief of Naval Operations Jon Greenert in NAVADMIN 235/12. He thanked the service for being an “instrumental partner”…
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey appreciates the hardworking men and women of the Coast Guard so much, he thanked them…in song. At the 8th annual Tribute to the Coast Guard on Tuesday night in Washington, D.C., Dempsey broke into a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “My Kind of Town,” replacing the lyrics with “This is my kind of team, the Coast Guard is, my kind of team, the Coast Guard is, my kind of people too, people who always come through.” He began the performance with a request for audience participation, stating “At some point in…
