ruaidhri
09-12-2005, 05:23 PM
I joined the U.S. Coast Guard in March, 1962.
I will never forget arriving at boot camp. What a shock. Up until then everyone I had met in the Coast Guard was very polite, fun to talk to and enthusiastic about my future. Then, I arrived in Cape May, NJ, where the Coast Guard has its boot camp. I learned that boot pushers don’t care if you like them. You’ve already signed on the dotted line and raised your hand and entered the military. They had you body and soul.
The Coast Guard base had just weathered a severe hurricane and it took a couple of hours before anyone arrived from the base to pick up us raw recruits. When the bus did arrive we discovered that the Coasty that drove the bus had a vocabulary that was limited to very few words that were mostly variations of a word beginning with “f” and ending with “k”. He was decidedly not civil or friendly. I immediately began questioning my decision to join the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard had and remains to have a very important and dangerous task. They guard and protect our shores from enemies both domestic and foreign. They protect shipping and people and routinely risk their lives to save others. You have to be tough to be a Coasty.
We were told that shortly before we arrived in Cape May the Coast Guard had brought in some Marine drill instructors to train our drill instructors on how to turn boys into men. Wow! I sure didn’t expect that. Our boot camp was a tough 13 weeks long with the possibility each week that a screw up on our part could result in our being put back into an earlier company where we could spend even more time in hell. We learned a lot about seamanship, the Coast Guard and ourselves. We rose to the situation and developed muscles and confidence that we didn’t know we had within us. We worked hard from 5:30 in the morning until taps at 10:00 PM. We soon became proud of our accomplishments. We became Coast Guardsmen ready for duty.
Following boot camp I was transferred to the Pacific Northwest where I was assigned to the USCG Cutter Mallow, a 180 Foot Buoy Tender with a home port of Astoria, Oregon. Astoria is on the mouth of the Columbia River and is the city that Arnold Schwarzennegger played a Kindergarten Teacher. It was also the location of the movie The Goonies. Astoria is beautiful. It is a rain forest because the air coming off the Pacific is forced to rise over the Mountains and as a result drops rain on Astoria every single day.
I knew from scuttlebutt that the work on Buoy Tenders was both hard and dangerous. Previous to my joining the Coast Guard, I had led an easy life. Certainly, I was not prepared for the hard work onboard a working Coast Guard ship. Like all the young men assigned to the Mallow, I learned quickly. I found that what made the work interesting was that it was hard and dangerous. The Mallow repaired, retrieved and replaced large ocean buoys along the Oregon coastline. We also serviced the Coast Guard Columbia River Lightship.
Every time we left our homeport of Astoria we had to cross from the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia River is a mighty river and the Pacific an even mightier ocean. Where they met there was always a battle royal between the two bodies of water, neither willing to give in to the other. The actual battle zone was known as the “Graveyard of the Pacific”. Being young and not fully aware of our own mortality, the crew looked forward to the adventure as exhilarating and certainly superior to the best of roller coasters.
One day while sitting on the mess deck enjoying the ride from river to ocean, the ship resounded with several loud crashes from stem to stern as the Mallow hit and passed over the Number 10 Buoy. This was a large buoy and the resulting collision was so loud that I just about swallowed my own tongue as I scrambled for my abandon ship station. Once on deck, in the Mallow’s wake, I saw the Number 10 Buoy sink beneath the waves. Fortunately, the Mallow didn't sink and we were able to turn around and limp back into port without hitting anything else, most importantly the rocks on the other side of where the buoy had been placed.
Our collision with the buoy had caused major damage to the Mallow requiring that we steam up river to Portland and dry dock. You can only imagine how much the crew enjoyed its stay in Portland. It was certainly preferable to a buoy trip down the Oregon coast. We had just come off of Charlie duty and had cleaned and polished everything before we started our regular buoy trips. Without much cleanup work on the now out of water ship, the Captain gave us a lot of liberty in Portland. While this was going on our sister ship the USCGC Ivy, which had just finished their buoy trip and was preparing to go on Charlie duty, which also allowed their crew to take liberty and leave, had to fulfill our obligations as their liberties and leaves were cancelled. We felt so bad for them as we partied in Portland. Yeah! We did send them a card saying, "Having a great time wish you were here". I don't believe they ever forgave us.
For several days, while in Portland, we had an inquest into the collision. We had Captains and Admirals on board to determine if our Captain had done anything wrong to cause the collision. Now, it’s not a good thing for a ship’s captain to ever damage his ship. There is no real excuse. He wasn’t directly punished but I do understand he was never given another command. That’s too bad because I really liked the man.
Anyway, our collision with the buoy had caused considerable damage to the Mallow. We tore up our propeller, bent our rudder and damaged the armature, which had to be removed and replaced. Altogether, we were in Portland for about 6 weeks. Yes, we partied. Portland was a great liberty town.
When we returned to Astoria the crew presented our Captain with a model of the Number 10 buoy.
I will never forget arriving at boot camp. What a shock. Up until then everyone I had met in the Coast Guard was very polite, fun to talk to and enthusiastic about my future. Then, I arrived in Cape May, NJ, where the Coast Guard has its boot camp. I learned that boot pushers don’t care if you like them. You’ve already signed on the dotted line and raised your hand and entered the military. They had you body and soul.
The Coast Guard base had just weathered a severe hurricane and it took a couple of hours before anyone arrived from the base to pick up us raw recruits. When the bus did arrive we discovered that the Coasty that drove the bus had a vocabulary that was limited to very few words that were mostly variations of a word beginning with “f” and ending with “k”. He was decidedly not civil or friendly. I immediately began questioning my decision to join the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard had and remains to have a very important and dangerous task. They guard and protect our shores from enemies both domestic and foreign. They protect shipping and people and routinely risk their lives to save others. You have to be tough to be a Coasty.
We were told that shortly before we arrived in Cape May the Coast Guard had brought in some Marine drill instructors to train our drill instructors on how to turn boys into men. Wow! I sure didn’t expect that. Our boot camp was a tough 13 weeks long with the possibility each week that a screw up on our part could result in our being put back into an earlier company where we could spend even more time in hell. We learned a lot about seamanship, the Coast Guard and ourselves. We rose to the situation and developed muscles and confidence that we didn’t know we had within us. We worked hard from 5:30 in the morning until taps at 10:00 PM. We soon became proud of our accomplishments. We became Coast Guardsmen ready for duty.
Following boot camp I was transferred to the Pacific Northwest where I was assigned to the USCG Cutter Mallow, a 180 Foot Buoy Tender with a home port of Astoria, Oregon. Astoria is on the mouth of the Columbia River and is the city that Arnold Schwarzennegger played a Kindergarten Teacher. It was also the location of the movie The Goonies. Astoria is beautiful. It is a rain forest because the air coming off the Pacific is forced to rise over the Mountains and as a result drops rain on Astoria every single day.
I knew from scuttlebutt that the work on Buoy Tenders was both hard and dangerous. Previous to my joining the Coast Guard, I had led an easy life. Certainly, I was not prepared for the hard work onboard a working Coast Guard ship. Like all the young men assigned to the Mallow, I learned quickly. I found that what made the work interesting was that it was hard and dangerous. The Mallow repaired, retrieved and replaced large ocean buoys along the Oregon coastline. We also serviced the Coast Guard Columbia River Lightship.
Every time we left our homeport of Astoria we had to cross from the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia River is a mighty river and the Pacific an even mightier ocean. Where they met there was always a battle royal between the two bodies of water, neither willing to give in to the other. The actual battle zone was known as the “Graveyard of the Pacific”. Being young and not fully aware of our own mortality, the crew looked forward to the adventure as exhilarating and certainly superior to the best of roller coasters.
One day while sitting on the mess deck enjoying the ride from river to ocean, the ship resounded with several loud crashes from stem to stern as the Mallow hit and passed over the Number 10 Buoy. This was a large buoy and the resulting collision was so loud that I just about swallowed my own tongue as I scrambled for my abandon ship station. Once on deck, in the Mallow’s wake, I saw the Number 10 Buoy sink beneath the waves. Fortunately, the Mallow didn't sink and we were able to turn around and limp back into port without hitting anything else, most importantly the rocks on the other side of where the buoy had been placed.
Our collision with the buoy had caused major damage to the Mallow requiring that we steam up river to Portland and dry dock. You can only imagine how much the crew enjoyed its stay in Portland. It was certainly preferable to a buoy trip down the Oregon coast. We had just come off of Charlie duty and had cleaned and polished everything before we started our regular buoy trips. Without much cleanup work on the now out of water ship, the Captain gave us a lot of liberty in Portland. While this was going on our sister ship the USCGC Ivy, which had just finished their buoy trip and was preparing to go on Charlie duty, which also allowed their crew to take liberty and leave, had to fulfill our obligations as their liberties and leaves were cancelled. We felt so bad for them as we partied in Portland. Yeah! We did send them a card saying, "Having a great time wish you were here". I don't believe they ever forgave us.
For several days, while in Portland, we had an inquest into the collision. We had Captains and Admirals on board to determine if our Captain had done anything wrong to cause the collision. Now, it’s not a good thing for a ship’s captain to ever damage his ship. There is no real excuse. He wasn’t directly punished but I do understand he was never given another command. That’s too bad because I really liked the man.
Anyway, our collision with the buoy had caused considerable damage to the Mallow. We tore up our propeller, bent our rudder and damaged the armature, which had to be removed and replaced. Altogether, we were in Portland for about 6 weeks. Yes, we partied. Portland was a great liberty town.
When we returned to Astoria the crew presented our Captain with a model of the Number 10 buoy.