A Helping Hand

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Coast Guard aircrews rescued 59 people and delivered more than 100,000 rations of food and water to people throughout the Dominican Republic after Tropical Storm Noel killed 83 people in the Caribbean nation.

Coast Guard aircrews from Air Station Clearwater, Fla., Air Station Borinquen, Puerto Rico, and Air Station Miami flew numerous rescue and humanitarian sorties over the disaster stricken nation. A number of rural areas and villages in the country were covered with water, and Coast Guard aircrews plucked survivors from the flood waters in situations reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

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More than 300 people gathered at Blackthorn Memorial Park, on the north end of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in St. Petersburg, Fla., Jan. 28, for a formal remembrance ceremony honoring 23 Coast Guard members who lost their lives when their cutter sank after colliding with a tanker Jan. 28, 1980.

The Coast Guard Cutter Blackthorn, a 180-foot buoy tender homeported in Galveston, Texas, was transiting from Tampa, Fla., when it collided with the tanker Capricorn just west of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Capricorn's anchor embedded into Blackthorn's port side and created a massive weight on the ship which caused it to capsize with 23 crewmembers still aboard.

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Coast Guard Seventh District Commander Rear Adm. David Kunkel officially kicked off the "Don't Let Your Guard Down" safe driver campaign Jan. 25 at Coast Guard Integrated Support Command Miami.  FULL TEXT

 

Four Coast Guard Auxiliary Division 11 members received the 2007 International Search and Rescue (ISAR) Competition's first-place award Feb. 27, at Coast Guard Station Sand Key in Clearwater, Fla.  FULL TEXT

Coast Guard members stationed throughout South Florida have officially christened the Greater Miami Coast Guard Enlisted Association during a ceremony Dec. 27, 2007 at Coast Guard Air Station Miami.  FULL TEXT

Members from Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg's newly-formed First-Class Mess volunteered to prepare breakfast for about 40 residents at the local Ronald McDonald House East in St. Petersburg, Fla., Feb. 16. The mess members prepared a feast that included pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs, muffins, toast, bagels, milk, coffee and juice.   FULL TEXT

Nearly 200 Coast Guard active duty, reserve, civilian and Auxiliary members, from throughout South Florida arrived ready to sweat for a good cause at the Habitat for Humanity, Hearts and Hands, Blitz Build in Miami.  FULL TEXT

The Coast Guard Cutter Joshua Appleby, a 175- foot buoy tender homeported in St. Petersburg, Fla., traveled 200 miles from St. Petersburg to Key West, Fla., to replace the Key West mainentrance- channel buoy "KW", Jan. 30.  FULL TEXT

Ask enough people in a room and someone can tell you what the world was like when computers weren't a part of everyday life. Today's computers are a part of everything we do. Just about everything we do in life relies on a computer or the internet.  FULL TEXT

Luck Over the Caribbean

Story by PAC Dana Warr, District Seven Public Affairs

Some people seem to have luck on their side. And there are those who seem to plan for most everything they do. Put proper planning and a little luck ogether and you have a recipe for survival, at least for one man.  FULL TEXT

The Coast Guard, in coordination with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Lee County, oversaw the removal and demolition of an abandoned fishing vessel that posed an environmental hazard in San Carlos Bay, Fort Myers Beach, Fla., March 10.  FULL TEXT

Is it a kid's ride at the state fair; is it an F-16 jet simulator at NASA? No, it's neither. Welcome aboard the Boating Advisory Trailer Public Awareness Kit (BATPAK) designed to teach everyone who participates that responsible boating is easy and fun.  FULL TEXT

"What is the most important rule to follow while aboard a boat?" asked Cmdr. Eric G. Johnson, head of the training department at Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Fla. "Wear a lifejacket!" shouted the kindergarten class of Cypress Woods Elementary School, in Palm Harbor, Fla.  FULL TEXT

Story by Air Force 478th, with contributions from Coast Guard PA1 Tasha Tully, PADET St. Petersburg, Fla.

A U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Fla., HC-130 Hercules landed here Feb. 7, with a generator and 1,053,800 vitamins for local schools and an orphanage, donated by Vitamins for the World and Extreme Response International.  FULL TEXT

The Port Everglades Harbor Safety Committee announced March 7 it had made its final regulation and the commercial anchorage area at the entrance to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., would be relocated.  FULL TEXT

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Coast Guard helped the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team apprehend a murder suspect aboard a Jacksonville-based cruise ship Feb. 28 at about 7 p.m.  FULL TEXT

The Coast Guard Band performed a public concert for more than 2,000 active-duty and retired armed-service members, Coast Guard auxiliarists and members of the public at Ruth Eckerd Hall, in Clearwater, Fla., Jan. 31.  FULL TEXT

TAMPA, Fla. - The U.S. Coast Guard recently published updates to the security zones in the Tampa Bay area. The changes made to the zones were based on information gained by using the newly-developed Maritime Security Risk Analysis Model (MSRAM) tool utilized by the Tampa Bay Area Maritime Security Committee (AMSC).  FULL TEXT

The average South-Florida resident probably wouldn't think twice upon hearing that the Coast Guard was on the search for six missing migrants from the Dominican Republic. And why not? Illegal migrant interdiction is a large part of what many Coast Guard units in South Florida do.  FULL TEXT

Getting the Hammer

It's an award not often heard of in the Coast Guard, yet it gives those who receive it, a great amount of pride. It isn't the Coast Guard Medal or a Lifesaving Medal. In fact, it isn't even a medal or citation; you can't place it on your chest or hang it in a frame. It's the Turek award.  FULL TEXT

During the 2007 holiday season, crewmembers from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Fla., were given a mission unlike their everyday search-and-rescue operations. The crew of a C-130 Hercules search plane flew six hours from Clearwater to Matthew Town, Bahamas, Dec. 17, delivering more than 200 toys, ranging from cars and dolls to skateboards and footballs, to the children of Great Inagua, Bahamas.  FULL TEXT

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Manatee County Port Authority have partnered to establish a community-based watch program designed to assist in the enforcement and implementation of a security zone on and around an island near Port Manatee known as Manbirtee Key.  FULL TEXT

Have you ever been "waked out" by another boat zooming by too fast? At best, it's just as annoying as being cut off by another driver on the roadway. You immediately gripe about the offender's boating skills.  FULL TEXT 

It was December 15th, and for the 15th year in a row, approximately 5000 wreaths donated by a caring company were being placed on veterans' graves at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. That same day, about 800 miles to the south, a single and prolonged blast of a horn announced to the world that the boat was leaving the dock at Riviera Beach, Fla., and heading out to sea.  FULL TEXT