Coast Guard Finds Life Rafts of Missing Marines

Search off Hawaii Finds Life Rafts but No Sign of 12 Marines
ASSOCIATED PRESS HONOLULU
By Audrey McAvoy and Jennifer Sinco Kelleher
Jan 18, 2016

Marine Capt. Timothy Irish said Monday that aircrews wear personal flotation devices with their flight suits and get additional training on top of survival swimming training. There are various ways that life rafts could be inflated, including a cord being pulled by debris, he said.

A search vessel cruises the waters off the beach at Haleiwa, Hawaii, Friday, Jan. 15, 2016.

Authorities searching the area where two Marine helicopters crashed off Hawaii have found some life rafts that were carried aboard the aircraft, but still no sign of the 12 crew members who were on board.

Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Sara Mooers said Monday she believes three life rafts have been recovered so far. Some were inflated, but it was unclear how they came to be inflated, she said.

There is no indication that anyone was aboard the rafts, based on their condition and the lack of any personal effects, she said.

The search for the Marines entered its fourth day Monday, with plans to search into the night. Conditions have improved since the start of the search, with much smaller swells expected Monday.

Rescuers from various agencies have been searching since the Coast Guard was notified late Thursday of the crash by a civilian who saw the aircraft flying and then disappear and a fireball.
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NFL Recognizes Coast Guardsmen at Football Games

NFL Recognizes Coast Guardsmen at Football Games
Oct 31, 2012
U.S. Coast Guard
by PAC Kyle Niemi

Major American professional sports teams have long found ways to recognize military servicemembers at their events. In the 9th Coast Guard District, Great Lakes athletes and teams are often acknowledging the service and sacrifice of area Coast Guardsmen.

From throwing the first pitch at a Cleveland Indians baseball game, to dropping the puck at a Lake Erie Monsters hockey game, to being recognized at an annual invitational golf tournament in Akron, Ohio, the sporting public gets their fair share of opportunities to “cheer-cheer” for their Coast Guard.

Recently, Coast Guardsmen assigned to the 9th District were recognized at two different NFL football game in less than one week.

Rear Adm. Mike Parks, commander of the 9th Coast Guard District in Cleveland, was honored at the Monday Night Football game between the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions, Oct. 22, at Soldier Field in Chicago. The following Sunday, Oct. 28, 12 Coast Guardsmen were honored at the Cleveland Brown’s Stadium during a Hats Off to Our Heroes event during the Browns’ game against the San Diego Chargers.

Parks was selected by the United Service Organizations of Illinois, which has had a partnership with the Bears for the past 10 years. The USO serves as the conduit for selecting military members to participate in the “Bears/Boeing Military Salute.”
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First Black Female U.S. Coast Guard Helicopter Pilot Has Inspiring Story

Meet The First Black Female U.S. Coast Guard Helicopter Pilot

Written by Jeff Mays on February 10, 2012

La’Shanda Holmes

Age: 26

Place of Residence: Los Angeles, Calif.

Why she is a local hero: Holmes overcame early adversity in her life to become the first Black female helicopter pilot in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Holmes’ early life was difficult to say the least: Her mother committed suicide when she was 2, and after abuse occurred in the foster home where she lived, Holmes was separated from her sibling. Afterward, Holmes bounced through the foster care system until she found stability at 17 with the people she still calls her “parents.”
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Coast Guard Veteran honored for saving lives of the men on the USS Dorchester

Veteran who pulled soliders from sea honored 69 years later

By Richard Robbins, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, February 4, 2012

Tom Vitale received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal during a ceremony on Friday in the American Legion post in North Belle Vernon.
Brian F. Henry | Tribune-Review

For 69 years, Tom Vitale never told his family the story.

It was a tale that unfolded in the dark, frigid waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. On Feb. 3, 1943, at one of the lowest points of World War II, Vitale, a 21-year-old seaman with the Coast Guard, helped rescue 92 soldiers from certain death after a German submarine attack on the troop ship USS Dorchester.

Nearly 700 men were lost, and the Dorchester's sinking became the stuff of legend when four military chaplains gave up their life jackets so that others could live.

For the next seven decades, Vitale, a hearty 90-year-old who lives in Fellsburg, Rostraver Township, said not a word about his actions during those rescue operations by the Coast Guard cutter Comanche -- not to Lois, his wife of 62 years, to his sons or daughter, to grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

On Friday, Vitale received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal during a ceremony at the American Legion post in North Belle Vernon -- the same medal for bravery awarded to John F. Kennedy for his role in rescuing the PT-109 crew in August 1943.

"I never spoke about the war to anyone," said Vitale, a retired school teacher and steelworker.

"I never thought it was important."

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Soldier faints during a White House welcome ceremony for the President of South Korea

Soldier faints during a White House welcome ceremony for the President of South Korea
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
14th October 2011

A U.S. Coast Guard fell backward onto the White House lawn during a morning welcome ceremony for the President of the Republic of Korea Thursday.
The soldier who has not been identified lay straight on his back behind a line of fellow soldiers with his eyes wide open.
He was aided by another solider while the ceremony continued.

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Coast Guard says Search continues for 11 workers missing since explosion

Oil slick spreads from sunken rig
By the CNN Wire Staff
April 22, 2010 6:11 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Officials don't know whether slick is leaking from rig or well, or is residue from fire
Oil slick measuring 1-by-5 miles spreads from site of sunken rig, Coast Guard says
Search continues for 11 workers missing since explosion Tuesday night on rig
Federal lawsuit alleges companies connected to oil rig explosion were negligent
(CNN) -- A 1-by-5-mile sheen of crude oil mix has spread across the Gulf of Mexico's surface around the area where an oil rig exploded and sank, a Coast Guard lieutenant said Thursday.

"This is a rainbow sheen with a dark center," Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry told reporters Thursday afternoon.

Officials do not know whether oil or fuel are leaking form the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig and the well below, but BP Vice President David Rainey said "it certainly has the potential to be a major spill." BP PLC operates the license on which the rig was drilling.

A remotely-operated vehicle is surveying the area and cleanup efforts are already under way, Landry said. The sheen "probably is residual from the fire and the activity that was going on on this rig before it sank below the surface," she said.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard continued to search for 11 people missing after an explosion late Tuesday set the rig ablaze forcing workers to be evacuated from the vessel. Officials are still unsure what caused the blast.
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/22/oil.rig.explosion/index.html?hpt=T2

Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter collided off California coast

Military aircraft collide off Calif. coast

THOMAS WATKINS - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Oct 30, 2009 8:03:16 EDT

LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were searching for as many as nine people off the Southern California coast following a collision between a Coast Guard plane and a Marine Corps helicopter, officials said.

The crash was reported at 7:10 p.m. Thursday, about 50 miles off the San Diego County coast and 15 miles east of San Clemente Island, Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Allyson Conroy said.

A pilot reported seeing a fireball near where the aircraft collided, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said, and the Coast Guard informed the FAA that debris from a C-130 plane had been spotted. Seven people were on board the plane, and two people were aboard the helicopter, he said.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/ap_midair_collision_103009/

Missing boaters clung to thread of hope

Missing boaters clung to thread of hope
Story Highlights
Three fishermen spent week on on capsized boat in Gulf of Mexico

Men rationed water, crackers, beer to live

Boater spotted fishermen about 180 miles from coast of Port Aransas, Texas

Coast Guard had called off search for men on Friday
CNN) -- They kept their bodies alive with rationed crackers, bubble gum, beer and three gallons of water. But spiritually, the three men lost at sea for eight days had something else to keep them going.

"We just kept praying, and we kept hope alive," rescued boater Tressel Hawkins told CNN on Monday. "Even though hope had managed to thread down to a little bitty string, I mean, that little bitty string could be just as strong as the rope you hung on to the first time you got started."

What was supposed to be a fishing expedition to catch swordfish and marlin became instead a test of survival.

Hawkins, 43, and his fellow boaters, Curtis Hall, 28, and James Phillips, 30, set out on August 21 from Matagorda Bay in Texas and went about 100 miles south. Their first night in the Gulf of Mexico almost proved fatal.

While Hawkins was sleeping, he said, he felt the bean bag he was resting on floating. He awoke to find water in the 23-foot catamaran knee-high. The water extractor had malfunctioned. He woke up Hall and Phillips and they tried to stop the flooding but it was too late, Hawkins said.
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Missing boaters clung to thread of hope