Search & Rescue
On average, the U.S. Coast Guard conducts 74 Search & Rescue (SAR) cases, saving 14 lives and assisting 98 people in distress each and every day of the year. When you think about it, those numbers are staggering. That's over 5000 lives saved every year!
Many people have seen the movie "The Guardian" starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. While helicopter rescues make up many of the Coast Guard's rescues, many more are done from Cutters (Coast Guard ships) and small boats. Many men and women in the Coast Guard are stationed throughout the United States at small boat stations, where they are always ready to resond to a boater in distress. From the crab fisherman in the Bearing Sea, to the tropical waters of the Carribean, the U.S. Coast Guard is always ready to respond to the call for help.
Throughout my six and a half years at sea, I have been involved in numerous SAR cases. The most personally rewarding one to me was a case 500 miles west of Guam, where a Chinese cargo vessel, the HAI TONG NO.7, had capsized during a typhoon. My Cutter responded, and picked up six survivors earlier rescued by a passing merchant vessel. We made the trip through seas in excess of 20 feet (on a cutter that was only 110', quite the ride, let me tell you), on the tail end of the passing typhoon. I really was glad to be a part of rescuing these six people and getting them back to dry land.