HAPPY 224th, U.S. COAST GUARD!! -- 8/4/14

Posted:  4 Aug 2014

UNCLAS //N01000//

ALCOAST 330/14

COMDTNOTE 1000

U.S. Coast Guard Commandant's Notice 1000

SUBJ: 224TH BIRTHDAY OF THE UNITED STATES COAST GUARD

1.  Today we celebrate the 224th birthday of the United States Coast Guard. We do so at a time when the Coast Guard is in greater demand than at any time in our history.  The challenges faced by our Nation, especially in our own Hemisphere, present opportunities and new demands for our Service.

2.  This year Coast Guard forces are engaged in operations on all seven continents.

Our Maritime Patrol forces continue to meet the challenges of transnational organized crime, increased illegal migration and demand for Coast Guard authorities and capabilities from the Eastern Pacific to the Middle East.  

 Our Shore-based forces continue to stand the watch in all of our vital ports and waterways, securing global commerce, protecting lives at sea, ensuring a safe, secure and resilient Maritime Transportation System, building and sharing incident management expertise, and protecting our natural resources. 

 Our Deployable Specialized Forces remain in demand world-wide and are present today supporting ISAF in Afghanistan, assisting with the removal of chemical weapons from Syria and providing security for joint forces in Cuba.  

Our Patrol Forces in Southwest Asia continue to provide maritime security for USCENTCOM.

3.  As an integral part of the DHS team, the Coast Guard is at the forefront of combating networks, securing our borders and safeguarding commerce.

Alignment with DHS will ensure unity of effort as we face persistent threats to our borders.  

We will invest in a 21st century Coast Guard.  

We have modernized our Sector Commands, maximized the capabilities of the WMSL and are well into the acquisition process for the Fast Response Cutter.  

We are near completion of our WMEC-270 Mission Effectiveness Project, and we are bringing 14 C-27Js into the inventory to replace aging C130s.  

Our product lines, bases and depot maintenance facilities are better aligned with operations and continue to transform to support world-wide mission execution.  

We will position the Coast Guard to meet the obligations of tomorrow.  The Offshore Patrol Cutter is vital to this effort and design and acquisition will proceed.  

We will also transform our financial management system to ensure future clean audits and world-class customer service. 

Our intelligence community will be leveraged to cue operations to ensure we put our forces where they can be most effective.

4.  Our exceptional international reputation is a direct result of the sustained mission excellence our Coast Guard men and women achieve every day.

5.  Happy birthday and thank you for your continued focus on Service to Nation, Duty to People and Commitment to Excellence.


6.  Admiral Paul F. Zukunft, Commandant, sends.

7.  Internet release is authorized.

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, USCG 

-- YOU CONTINUE TO DO THE NATION PROUD -- 

VERY LUCKY US!

All Original Content © 2014, The MENTOR Enterprises / ELMS, All Rights Reserved on this entire document -- "A Brand New Dark Age -- if the US had lost her Civil War" -- BUT, I hereby waive those rights, to this extent: You may freely copy and pass this along -- and are urged to do so -- as long as it's all done free of charge, unchanged, you include this statement, AND you inform me as to how it is being used -- at YOUR convenience but, hopefully soonest.

The Other Day, I was Touched by a HERO OF WAR!

Posted:  8 Feb 13

HEROES ARE TO BE FOUND EVERYWHERE!  

SOMETIMES, YOU JUST NEED THE LUCK TO ASK

THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

---

1.  BACKGROUND

A couple of days ago, I attended a "Coast Guard Officers Association" luncheon at Coast Guard Base Alameda.  The featured speaker was the "big boss," Vice Admiral Paul Zukunft, Commander of the entire Coast Guard Pacific Area, headquartered there, at the Base.  As would be expected of one who rose to the top of an awesome advancement process -- the best and the brightest -- it was a spell-binding and thoroughly edifying privilege.

I was seated at the table with three of my old friends -- one, Bill Davis, I hadn't seen in 33 years, since we served together in the old Coast Guard Cutter Glacier. Turns out, Bill and VADM Zukunft were classmates at the CG Academy in New London, CT -- and boy, did that make me feel old (just for a second or two).

VADM Zukunft's predecessor, VADM Manson Brown, was an ensign (then, lieutenant-jg) who served with Bill and me in Glacier -- I could tell, even then, that he was going to wear stars -- I just didn't imagine that Admiral Brown would wear three (and maybe even four) of them!  He may well become the Coast Guard's first black Commandant! (I really don't feel that old, so far, thank God, even though I was six years senior to them ... for a little while ... till our life-courses altered.)

Another was a former Commanding Officer of mine -- and now a long-time best friend, Roy Henderson, Lieutenant Commander, retired.

The third was David Desiderio, retired Commander, whom I only knew by great reputation, back in the old days -- but became friends with, in recent years.  I noticed that he was wearing a beautiful gold-star device in his lapel.  

I am so glad I asked him about it.

2.  THE GOLD STAR

The Gold Star Lapel Button, also referred to as the Gold Star pin, is distributed to members of the immediate family of a fallen service member by the Department of Defense.

• The pin is distributed according to strict Department of Defense guidelines for service members who have lost their lives in conflict or in support of certain military operations. 
• The Gold Star has also appeared on flags, as was popular during WWII, which families would hang in the window to indicate that a loved one had been killed overseas. 
• Gold Star Families, those included in this Registry, are individuals who have received the Gold Star Lapel Button from the Department of Defense for the sacrifice of their loved one.

3.  THE DESIDERIO GOLD STAR

Commander Desiderio blessed our table with a portion of the story, recounting the remarkable deeds of his father, who won the Medal of Honor, during the Korean War -- at the cost of his life.

His father, Captain Reginald B. Desiderio, U.S. Army, (September 12, 1918 – November 27, 1950), justly earned his honored place in that most exclusive of clubs, The Congressional Medal of Honor Society. (I've included the links, so you can see for yourselves)

4.  LUCKY, LUCKY US!

Among other things, these heroes, who turn the tide of battle, even laying down their lives for their comrades, do things that reverberate down the ages.

• Large populations now exist (who wouldn't, otherwise), "only" because these warriors saved the lives of future fathers and mothers
• Wars turn out differently and society flourishes, rather than darkens
• Their great acts inspire more of the same
• They teach us well, by demonstrating how freedom and human dignity exact awesome costs for their preservation -- and make us search our souls to see whether we could have done such deeds, ourselves -- to truly rise to the occasion
• They leave a legacy of honor that blesses their descendants and shapes their lives -- and the lives of those whom these others, themselves, touch -- ALL OF US -- connected together into the single great human chain-reaction which IS us...

"THESE BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE"

I am so glad I asked.  Thank you, David, for sharing a story that deserves to be told, heard, and relished -- forever.  And thank you, Captain Desiderio, sir, for this "last full measure of devotion."


David Nelson

10 Feb 13 / Sun -- An After-Thought:  

This morning, while thinking of heroes, I awoke with the words "alter of freedom" ringing loud and clear within my mind -- uttered by another of the selfless ones who have blessed this Republic and world.  

President Lincoln, even while fully engaged in conducting one of the pivotal events in all of human history, our Civil War -- found the time and decency to care about the feelings of a mother, believed to have lost 5 sons in that sadly necessary upheaval.  (In a very real sense, he was feeling the loss of hundreds of thousands of sons, himself -- including two of his own)

He tried to lighten her tragic burden with words intended to give her loss some deeper meaning so that her reasoning mind and soothed soul would help her bear up to the unbearable.  

With his extraordinary gift of eloquence, he not only accomplished this -- he added yet one more treasure to the vast, rich store of goodness he bequeathed to our entire species -- once again demonstrating the great and enduring power of good words and acts, when used heroically.

Here, see for yourselves.

DN


All Original Content © 2013 , The MENTOR Enterprises / ELMS, All Rights Reserved -- BUT, I hereby suspend those rights, to this extent: You may freely copy and pass this along, if you think it will do some good -- as long as it's free of charge, unchanged, and you include this statement.

Salute to Coast Guard Viet Nam Vets -- 11/8/12

Tag:  "Military"

ICEBREAKER!! The End for Ex-Coast Guard Cutter GLACIER, Age 58

Update: 9/20/12 -- Talked with ESCO Marine, a Texas shipbreaker.  After a 40-day journey from the "mothball fleet" at Suisun Bay, CA to Brownsville, TX, ex-Glacier arrived at her final port on 19 June.  Breaking of the vessel began shortly thereafter and continues, quite rapidly -- until around 1 October.  From that moment -- an existence of 58 years, 34 days ceases -- for Glacier will be no more  -- except for her atoms, to be blended into valued new steel products or lying somewhere, rusting back to nature -- and in the fading particles of memory, for those to whom she meant something.  She mattered. There is always that.  And that's that.

First published: 4/18/12

SAD, BUT INEVITABLE, END FOR A FAMOUS SHIP
"And this, too, shall pass away..."

YOU CAN STILL SEE HER, if you look closely (and quickly) enough. Look down and east, from the Benicia Bridge.  She sits idled and nestled-in among the aging mothball fleet, in the row closest to you.  She's the second ship from the north, but not for much longer -- she's heading for the "shipbreakers," real soon.

Next to the other aging vessels, the 310'-long ex-Coast Guard Icebreaker, GLACIER,  seems short and fat -- but, she is "fat" for a reason.  She had to cut wide enough channels in the thick polar ice to allow other vessels to follow her to their iced-in destinations

BACKGROUND NOTE 

By the way, the Coast Guard is like our nation's "Swiss Army-knife" of the seas.  

• We all know that if there is a life (or property) to be saved, on almost any navigable, interstate water-body (such as "Katrina," rivers, lakes, oceans), regardless of weather conditions (or anything else), our Coast Guard is likely to be the one to do it.  They say "we have to go out, but we don't have to come back in."
• With the recent 2012 centennial of the  death of RMS Titanic, it's fitting to note that not a single ship has ever been lost due to iceberg collision, since that tragedy.  This is largely due to the International Ice Patrol, for which our Coast Guard has always been the driving force.  

• Oh, there's so much material for future articles -- but with this background, we shouldn't be surprised that the Coast Guard also runs all the nation's public icebreakers -- and has significant presence -- performing a multitude of other vital functions -- all over the globe.  

.  

LONG LIVE THE U.S. COAST GUARD -- 

one of the nation's VERY BEST bargains, undeniably!

WHAT A MACHINE "BIG RED" WAS!  Carrying a crew of around 200, plus a two-helicopter detachment, her 10 locomotive-sized engines and nearly 2"-thick steel hull enabled her to drive through ice, up to 2-stories thick!  The surface of the ice is at sea-level, but the thickness is measured downward from that surface.

SHE CARRIED A SUITE OF SCIENCE LABORATORIES to support 10 marine scientists and to give them access to the coldest regions of the earth -- north and south -- to do amazing science in places inaccessible by any other means.  That, and logistical support for the US-Antarctic base at McMurdo Sound.  There is even an enlisted Coast Guard specialty-field, "Marine Science Technician," to support the science teams who arrived from various universities and other institutions, to temporarily serve during her annual deployments into the cold, remote wastes of the planet.  And, oh, the great discoveries she enabled.

TO BREAK THE THICKER ICE, she used the "backing and ramming" technique.  With all engines on line, she would back down, about 1/4 mile -- then charge ahead, flank speed, smacking into the ice -- riding up on top -- stopping at the right instant (or else risk becoming stuck) -- to allow her weight, momentum, and temporary air space below the ice, to collapse the hard blue-white stuff.  Then, repeating the cycle -- non-stop -- for weeks -- under the 24-hour sun -- to cut the roughly 27 mile channel to her usual summer destination on the southern continent -- during annual "OPERATION DEEP FREEZE" deployments.  (The same technique took the scientists where the satellites said they should explore and which only a powerful icebreaker could ever hope to reach.)



SHE WAS SO SOLID that icebreaking activities were barely discernible to those inside her.  The newer Coast Guard icebreakers are far more powerful and efficient, and can do the same job in days -- and much cheaper -- so, her fate was sealed.  But for her time, she was "Big Red." (Coast Guard polar icebreakers are painted red, as opposed to the usual white, to better contrast with their typical operating environment -- the camouflage of typical "Coast Guard white" would have been inappropriate).

HER HISTORY AND FATE ARE EXCERPTED BELOW -- but there's more -- much more to this masterpiece of naval engineering.  When former crew members witness the sad, ignominious end to ships where they spent significant portions of their youth -- a grieving often takes place (sort of like losing an old friend who succeeded in keeping one alive and comfortable and entertained with adventures).  I grieve, but such is life.

A GLACIER SOCIETY formed in an effort to save the ship and convert it into a museum but, alas, the effort came to naught.

WIKIPEDIA Excerpts:

USS Glacier (AGB-4) (later USCGC Glacier (WAG/WAGB-4)) is the historic Glacier class icebreaker which served in the first through fifteenth Operation Deep Freeze expeditions. Glacier was first icebreaker to make her way through the frozen Bellingshausen Sea, and most of the topography in the area is named for her crewmembers. When built, Glacier had the largest capacity single armature DC motors ever installed on a ship Glacier was capable of breaking ice up to 20 feet (6.1 m) thick, and of continuous breaking of 4-foot (1.2 m) thick ice at 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph)...

... Following 29 Antarctic and 10 Arctic deployments, Glacier was decommissioned in 1987. She is currently under the control of the U.S. Maritime Administration, located in the U.S. Naval Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay, on the Sacramento River, California. 

...  On February 16, 2012 Glacier was sold for scrap for $146,726. She's scheduled to be broken up at ESCO Marine in Brownsville, Texas.  :(

[... and, as of around 1 October 2012, Glacier will be no more.]



David Nelson


Note:  Glacier's Navy and Coast Guard hull numbers were 4, once and always.  The "W" identifies it as a Coast Guard ship.  The other vessels shown are to give you added perspective on ships of her function and type.  As to sisters in her particular class of ice-breaker, I believe she was unique in all the world.






All Original Content © 2012 , The MENTOR Enterprise / ELMS, All Rights Reserved -- BUT, I hereby suspend those rights, to this extent: You may freely copy and pass this along, if you think it will do some good -- as long as its free of charge, unchanged, and you include this statement.