Rescue swimmers in the Coast Guard have to be a tough lot. That’s even more true for female rescue swimmers. There are only four of them in the service, and that gives you a good indication of their caliber. In April, we wrote about Aviation Survival Technician 2nd Class Jaime Vanacore, a rescue swimmer who was trying out for American Ninja Warrior (she got invited to Las Vegas for finals, by the way) and now Chief Aviation Survival Technician Karen Voorhees has made history by becoming the first female rescue swimmer in the Coast Guard to make chief. She was…
Browsing: Helicopters
[HTML1] It’s not often that we get to experience a close-up view of a Coast Guard rescue, but a video released by the Coast Guard gives us exactly that, showing a North Carolina man being plucked from the sea March 6 off Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Rescued was Patrick Small, of North Carolina. Two other men, Walter and Steve Tate, also of North Carolina, remain missing. The Coast Guard called off the search for them the next day. The men were aboard the fishing vessel Seafarer when it became disabled, the Coast Guard reported in a news release. The Seafarer’s sister…
I remember a 1990-ish visit to a Japanese submarine base and being dumbfounded to see the subs flying the rising sun flag off their stern masts. Dumbfounded, because being, ahem, of a certain age, I associated the flag — a red disc with red and white “beams” extending outward — with the aggressive World War II-era regime that launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in an effort to exercise total dominance over the Pacific. Its use was banned in 1945 following the surrender to the United States and its allies, but many Americans don’t realize that it was re-adopted…
No, it’s not a doctored photo. That’s two — TWO — San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships operating simultaneously. To be fair, two of the other three commissioned ships in the class are also at sea. Mesa Verde and Green Bay are deployed. New Orleans just completed sea trials following a scheduled maintenance period. New York took part in the recent Fleet Week event in New York City and, as you can see in the June 9 photo above, is now underway, conducting unit-level training. But let’s face it: This is a rare pic — particularly since San Antonio is…
The Obama administration is working hard to play down the U.S. role in the airstrikes and no-fly zone operations on and over Libya, with senior officials stressing that the U.S. involvement is “limited” and that the operation is a broad-based coalition effort with international participation and Arab League backing — not a U.S.-led foray into yet another predominantly Muslim nation, which could further damage its already poor image in that part of the world. The Navy released at least seven images Monday, all apparently aimed at reinforcing that sense: All but one includes a coalition officer or aircraft. For example:…