Welcome Aboard The CGC Morgenthau
March 12, 2006
Greetings from USCGC MORGENTHAU! This is the eighth report of our current deployment. We hope to keep you well informed of the great accomplishments and happenings of the Coast Guard Pacific Area’s ship of choice – the United States Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau.
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The Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau, homeported in Alameda, Ca.
Photo by Tony Gillilan.
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From The Bridge:
Captain M. E. Sullivan
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Our two-day port call in Golfito, Costa Rica this week was a welcome reward for a couple weeks’ worth of very hard work by this dedicated crew. We got our second cocaine interdiction of the deployment this past week, a textbook tactical operation perfectly planned and executed by our fine Morgenthau professionals. We all enjoyed calling home to our loved ones this past weekend, and appreciated receiving mail finally—thank you for all the care packages and letters from home. Wish us all luck as we put to sea today to continue the hunt for smugglers. Best regards from the eastern Pacific – Captain M. E. Sullivan.
The Week in Review…
Sunset of the Week
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This was one intense week at sea for the Morgenthau. Last week we mentioned in late-breaking news that we got a bust. Sunday night we executed a flawless tactical interdiction of a “go-fast”—a small vessel specifically designed to smuggle drugs at extremely high rates of speed. Using our embarked helicopter and then our small boat, we successfully stopped the go-fast, boarded it, found 125 bales of cocaine, and received permission from the vessel’s host country to seize the contraband, detain the crew, and sink the vessel as a hazard to navigation. We were up all night Sunday processing the case, finishing by noon Monday. And we were excited beyond belief: our second interdiction of the patrol.
On Tuesday we held miscellaneous training in the morning for quarterdeck watchstanders and Engineers in Training. We flew our helicopter off to rendezvous and conduct local operations with another Coast Guard cutter on patrol in our area. Our Damage Control Training Team, led by LT Greg Tozzi, conducted an emergency fire and flooding drill Tuesday afternoon in blazing heat. We have to conduct training very carefully in hot conditions like Tuesday found to guard against dehydration, because our fire parties wear very heavy fire retardant suits. Morgenthau rendezvous’d with that same Coast Guard cutter Tuesday night and transferred all our contraband and detainees in a latenight operation, including recovering our helicopter. We slept in on Wednesday to compensate.
Wednesday was a typical, intense day at sea with damage control testing, basic engineering casualty control drills, law enforcement training, Introduction to Business class, advanced damage control team training, and two flights. We were briefly diverted for a law enforcement case on Wednesday, and used that day’s two flights to try and locate the vessel of interest. We didn’t find it and continued our patrol.
Thursday was a standard workday with departmental and divisional training in the morning, followed by more basic engineering casualty control drills and Introduction to Computer Information Systems class. That evening we held a navigation brief to prepare for the next day’s arrival in Golfito, Costa Rica.
Entering Golfito, Costa Rica
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From Friday morning to Sunday morning, the crew enjoyed a two-day port visit to this remote fishing village on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. Our engineers fueled the ship (they onloaded over 100,000 gallons without a drop spilled, thanks to our Fuel, Oil, and Water King, MK2 Jesse Ridgeway), we took on stores (food), supplies, and mail, and finally offloaded trash, sewage, oily water. Once liberty was granted, we explored the small town and vicinity.
Some of our crew got hotel rooms at local resorts; others headed to more remote locations such as the Zancudo peninsula to small resorts along the black-sand beaches. On Saturday eight of our crew went deep-sea fishing and caught not only impressive sunburns but four 125+ pound sail fishes. Small groups of crewmembers went horseback riding while others went deep into the rain forest on a river hike up to a gorgeous waterfall. We needed the break after very fast-paced, intense operations this past week, and the crew sure enjoyed themselves. Some of their comments about Golfito, Costa Rica compiled by ENS Pam Wade):
SN Mike Morrill and ENS Ernie Saponara
on the flight deck this week
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• “Much needed total relaxation” – BMCS Darren Davis, Everett, WA
• “Big Thunder Bed and Breakfast.” – SKC Keith Johnson, Sheffield, AL
• “The chance to work at a fine establishment.” – SK2 Michael Simonetti, Middletown, NY
• “Bananas Foster.” GMC Mark Jacobs, Milwaukee
• “I hate no see-ums.” – HSC Rebecca Vinlove, McLouth KS
• “Dutch Harbor of the South..” – MKCM Aaron Relford, Omishlando, OH
• “A full day of relaxation and laziness.” -- FS3 Alejandro Alonso, Miami, FL
• “I did absolutely nothing.” -- LT Michael Fisher, Columbia, SC
• “I liked being Mr. DJ.” – MK2 Edwin Prince, Queens, NY
• “Zancudo rocks!” – YNC Ann Ladd, Chicago, IL
• “It’s the 8th wonder of the world.” – BM3 Wendy Leiva, Leon, Nicaragua
• “I saw a donkey dog!” – YN3 Jessica Garay, Novato, CA
• “The sail fishing and late night star gazing.” – FN Timothy Daugherty, Eclectic, AL
• “It’s a good place and I loved the wild life.” – SN Benjamin Engle, Columbia
• “The Pina Coladas and well distilled rum.” – CTI1 Shavonne Castro, Bronx, NY
Law Enforcement Program Report
by LTJG Elizabeth Gillis
Action for the LE Team started with a bit of a false start. Our helo detected a contact in the waning hours of daylight that in the darkness appeared to be a go-fast type vessel sitting still in the water. We launched our LE team in the middle of the night to investigate, only to discover we tactically crept up on an uncharted weather buoy. It turned out to be good practice for the following day, however….
FS3 Alex Alonso on duty in the pantry
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Our next major and somewhat more notable accomplishment of the week was a go-fast vessel—right in the middle of our steak and lobster dinner! Our Combat Information Center team, led by OSC Brian Dorsey, was able to position our cutter on a probable threat vector. Everyone was sitting down to a nice dinner when the Operations Officer (OPS), LT Mike Fisher, received a call that the lookout and radar had detected a high-speed contact traveling at over 30kts. We set the Go-Fast Response Bill and the entire ship left their steak and lobster on the table uneaten. But, nobody was disappointed: the 3.4 tons of cocaine wrapped up in 125 bales were more than worth it.
The seizure only occurred through the coordinated efforts of the entire ship. Our armed HITRON helicopter got their first real action for the patrol. We sent out the Over-The-Horizon (OTH) small boat to assist with the chase and end game. Our engineers fired up the big jet engines (gas turbines) and we flew along after the boat. The helicopter was able to convince the suspect vessel to stop, and we continued the interdiction with our surface assets.
MK2 Ed “Smiles a lot” Prince
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Our OTH team continued at top speed to continue the interdiction. Once the vessel was stopped, the OTH loaded up with its mission commander, coxswain, assistant mission commander and boat engineer. On arrival at the sea, they secured the suspect boat and its crew with the assistance of the secondary law enforcement team, launched shortly thereafter in our other small boat: an additional boarding officer and three boarding team members, including a Spanish interpreter. 10 armed Coasties convinced the six narcoterrorists that their day was over.
The next day, our Gunner’s Mates had a blast (literally) sinking the go-fast vessel as a “hazard to navigation,” meaning it was dangerous to leave it floating for other boats to run into and we could not tow it because it was not safe. We put our case package together in record time for the Assistant US Attorney to bust these bad guys. We offloaded the contraband and detainees to another asset in a late night rendezvous within 48 hours of the bust. That’s a lot of work in a short amount of time. You can sleep a little easier knowing the drug runners aren’t getting any sleep while MORGENTHAU is on patrol.
Division in the Spotlight...
by ENS Peter Hsu
ET3 Scott Finstad manning the throttles
on the way into Golfito this week
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Morgenthau’s Health Services division consists of two hardworking corpsmen and one part-time non-rate who make sure that the crew stays in good health as we sail the Pacific so many miles away from home.
“I think what makes my job great is that I know people trust me, they trust my ability, and they trust my experience,” says Health Services Chief Petty Officer Rebecca Vinlove, division Chief. “There are not a lot of rates or people that have the gift of getting people’s trust.”
Out at sea, the health services technicians provide critical medical care services to all 175 crewmembers. There are rarely other medical options–the nearest hospital is normally several thousand miles away – so the trust between patient and physician is natural.
DC2 John White and his pet water hose
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“I love being underway,” says Petty Officer Third Class Tim Marshall. “I prefer it to being in a clinic. In a clinic, you don’t spend a lot of time with your patients. For lack of a better word it’s a ‘sterile’ environment. Being operational, you get to interact with your patients every day.”
“Being underway is bittersweet. When you’re ashore you miss being underway. When you’re underway you miss being on land,” says Chief Vinlove. “The friendships you make underway are much more solid. While ashore, patients are only seen by those taking care of them during infrequent visits. However, underway, with patents you see them recover.”
HS3 Tim Marshall, HSC Rebecca
Vinlove, SN Dan Moraga
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HS3 Marshall is a veteran of eight years in the army. He explains that “most of my family is in the medical field.” Upon joining the Coast Guard, he decided to become a health services technician. “When I was in the army, I saw what a great job the medics in the army did. Plus, being a grunt just wasn’t working out for me.”
Although she originally intended to join the Navy as ground crew for planes on a carrier, 15 years later HSC Vinlove is able to say “It’s been a fabulous career. I like being able to help people rescued during search and rescue cases, people who would otherwise perish at sea.”
The Health Services division is also augmented by SN Daniel Moraga (featured in last week’s newsletter), who is learning as much as he can before he heads off to Health Services “A” school, sometime in the next few months.
How to Simulate Shipboard Life in Your Own Home...
MK2 Chuck Malinski’s new
messdeck coiff.
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We always print this popular piece once a patrol. Want to know what it’s like at sea? Take any of these measures below for a taste of the underway lifestyle:
• Go to your local hardware store and find the brightest most toxic gloss white paint possible and paint your entire house with 5 coats. Making sure that on a sunny day it blinds everyone in a one-mile radius and it can be seen by orbiting spacecraft. Then every two months completely repaint it using only those cheep foam brushes that fall apart after you get them wet for the first time.
• Get rid of every comfortable piece of furniture in your home. Throw out all of the carpet and re-floor with linoleum that you can never get completely clean looking. Put metal picnic tables in your dining room. Buy new office furniture made by federal inmates and make sure to rip it when you carry it through the house and put it in the living room.
Mr. Fred Nichols, Augusta contractor
for our HITRON helicopter
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• Put a 2x8 board at the bottom and top of every doorway and forget it’s there. Bolt random things to the walls strategically placed in spots throughout the house where you’ll be sure to bump into them when it’s dark.
• Invite 160 strangers over, and then shut the door and never open it for 2 to 3 weeks at a time. Then after the longest 2 to 3 weeks of your life, grant “liberty” for two days and tell them the only places that they can go to are ether a grocery store, restaurants, and the neighborhood bars all with in a 3 mile radius from your “ship”. Also, only grant liberty on days with the worst weather possible, ether freezing rain and 30-knot winds or 100+ degrees and 100% humidity.
• Put your coffee table against a wall, put a curtain around it and buy a cheap camping bed and use that as your mattress. Then have someone sit on top of the coffee table playing video games till the wee hours of the morning. Then have someone turn on the lights sharply at 0630 (that’s 6 am for you luck people out there who don’t live by military time).
• Have all meals served “cafeteria style,” using trays that also double as your plate. Sit down at your picnic table with 7 other people sitting shoulder to shoulder and have them talk as loud as possible.
• Go to your local frat house and take a dozen or so college students, put little bars on their hats, put them in charge of 20 people or so and call them Sir or Ma’am and salute them whenever you pass them outside.
SKC Keith Johnson in the office
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• Go out to your garden hose and put water into a 55-gallon drum, add a little bromine, let it sit for a week, and then use that as your drinking water.
• Give a 17 year old a flashlight and have them knock on the side of your “rack,” shine the light in your face and tell you that you have next watch at 0300 (3 am) then either go stand in front of your washing machine or on your roof in the rain for four hours. After you are done with watch go straight to work.
• Put a generator in your living room, run it non stop to simulate the proper noise level and after a month take it totally apart to perform “planned maintenance”.
• Invite your Father in-law over (not one of the cool ones we’ve heard of, but the one you could never fully please) to live in your master bedroom, put a blue hat on him with “scrambled eggs” embroidered on it and call him XO. Then have him wander around the house pointing out “discrepancies” and have him send you the list by email via everyone in your family.
LTjg Brandon Horne deep-sea fishing
off Golfito, Costa Rica
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• Have someone with a very wild imagination make up “hot intel”, then randomly at 0100 have them tell the “ship” using a very loud PA (coincidently one if the speakers just so happens to be right over your head) that there is a possible “bad guy” 1000 miles away from where you are at a place that is unknown, in a vessel that is unknown as well.
• For those of you who know the Law Enforcement type, try this... Stand on top of a riding lawn mower being driven by an 18-year-old break in Coxswain (boat driver). Stop outside of your neighbor’s house on a beautiful Sunday morning while they are watching football, then using a bullhorn tell them to heave to and have their crew muster on their front lawn. From there blind fold your coxswain (to simulate the 5 to 10 foot swells that usually appear out of nowhere whenever you try to do a boarding), have them drive up to the house. Then while standing on your tippy toes, jump for dear life to a rickety rope ladder hanging from your neighbor’s second story window. Then while “onboard” ask them the most personal questions possible about their “vessel” and their crew, then write down the SSN’s, the drivers license numbers, their DOB’s, and the names of the unborn children of every one on the vessel so you can pass that information to “Big Brother.” Then as you’re leaving wonder why they don’t seem sad to see you go. From there take the leap of faith back into the small boat so they can take you the neighbor’s house on the other side of your “vessel”.
Crew Recognition This Week…
Compiled by ENS Ernie Saponara
Our MH-68 in action this week
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• MK1 Eric Arwood, winner of last Saturday’s Texas Hold’em Tournament (won an Xbox 360). LTjg Piero Pecora’s big ol’ sail fish
• SN John Clare was certified as a helicopter tie-down team member.
• ENS George Hall was certified as an Underway Engineer Officer of the Watch and was awarded temporary entitlement to the cutterman’s insignia.
• SN Nick Helbert was certified as a helicopter tie-down team member.
• SN Ruben Nieves was certified as an Underway Boatswain’s Mate of the Watch.
• ENS Ernie Saponara celebrated a birthday on 09 March.
• ENS Kyra Van Echo was awarded temporary entitlement to the cutterman’s insignia.
• ENS Kyra Van Echo celebrated a birthday on 08 March.
• ENS Pamela Wade was certified as an Underway Officer of the Deck and was awarded temporary entitlement to the cutterman’s insignia.
Blast from the Past
Can our plankowners or former crewmembers place this pho-tograph, when and where?
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We’ll See You All Soon…
We’ll be safe out here on the high seas – you be safe too at home, and thank you for your support, e-mails and care packages! We’re thinking of you all the time.
Best regards,
The Officers, Chiefs and Crew of
USCGC MORGENTHAU (WHEC 722)
“Decus Pacifici – Pride of the Pacific”
Send care packages to:
USCGC MORGENTHAU (WHEC 722)
FPO AP 96672-3916
Visit us at: http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/MORGENTHAU
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