The official blog of the U.S. Coast Guard
Through his own initiative to learn more about geospatial science and geographic information systems, First Class Cadet Evan Twarog learned about crisis mapping and how it can help during emergencies. During Hurricane Harvey, Twarog began working on taking posts from social media asking for help and placing them on a map to give first responders a location to search.
Those familiar with Coast Guard history know that the service’s development has been shaped in response to natural and man-made disasters. Nowhere is that clearer than the Coast Guard’s search and rescue mission. This month 180 years ago, Congress presented the service an early Christmas gift of legislation authorizing the service to perform search and rescue.
The Arctic Coast Guard Forum consisting of members from Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Russian Federation and the United States coordinated an exercise to test search and rescue capabilities in the Arctic. The “Arctic Guardian 2017” exercises took place in Reykjavik, Iceland, testing cooperation, coordination, and communication across partner nations’ rescue coordination centers.
Capt. Patricia McFetridge, a veteran of 34 years of total military service, is a 1990 recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and a trailblazer for women in Coast Guard aviation.
Those familiar with Coast Guard history know that the service’s development has been shaped in response to the nation’s natural and man-made disasters. Nowhere is that clearer than the Coast Guard’s search and rescue mission. Major response efforts and evolving technology continue to influence the U.S. Coast Guard’s development as the world’s premier search and rescue organization.
When a mariner is found at sea it is no accident. In fact it is often the result of hours of deliberate search and rescue planning and continually nurtured partnerships across jurisdictions and borders. Search and rescue governance is an important element in the Pacific where vast distances and limited resources make saving lives all the more challenging.
The U.S. Coast Guard is the lead agency for maritime search and rescue (SAR) in U.S. waters. But that mission is compromised every time the service receives a hoax distress call. Making a false distress call is a violation of federal law (14 U.S. Code § 88) and may result in up to six years in prison, a $250,000 criminal fine, a $5,000 civil fine, and reimbursing the U.S. Coast Guard for the cost of performing the search.
The Research Development Test and Evaluation team recently completed the Search and Rescue Hoax Location Systems and Methods project, “evaluate and demonstrate different technologies that would assist the Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) and other partners with locating, identifying and prosecuting hoax callers within the Coast Guard domain.”
There is no “typical” Tuesday in the Coast Guard, but this blog features a snippet of what the Coast Guard was up to on Tuesdays during the month of February. From Antarctica to Key West, with old and new assets, the Coast Guard carried out missions vital to protecting and securing our national interests.
Temporary Denial of Service 911 hoax calls plague our nation’s first responder agencies. Similarly, there is a growing hoax call problem on the Channel 16 maritime distress frequency, which mariners rely on for radio communications in our nation’s ports and waterways. Search and rescue (SAR) hoax calls disrupt and divert the Coast Guard’s operational response to legitimate mariners in emergency situations. The Coast Guard has partnered with an academic research team to tackle the SAR hoax call phenomenon.
Though their voices are always heard over the radio and they save countless lives, Coast Guard operations specialists are rarely seen by the maritime community they serve. Behind the scenes these Coast Guard men and women obtain vital information to rescue mariners and careful plan and coordinate search and rescue missions.