I've been pretty blessed. Grew up on a angus ranch founded in 1908. Graduated HS in 1989 and enlisted. Went to boot camp in Cape May NJ, then got stationed in Cleveland on the CGC Neah Bay. In a year and a half I'd been in all the Great Lakes the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the North Atlantic as far south as Nantucket. We really got around. After four years I was transferred back to Oregon to begin training to be a Surfman. With such a shortage of them I basically got to pick where I wanted to be stationed, the rest of my career.
Right after 9/11 they deployed boat crews from every station in Oregon and Washington to patrol the Sound, and provide security for Navy assets. So I spent some time up there "guarding" aircraft carriers LOL. After the USS Cole got blasted by a suicide boat, it was evident this could be a threat. So there I was running around Puget Sound trying to look tactical. We didn't have any training, the policies of engagement changed daily, and it was all basically seat of the pants, invent procedures as we go. Fun as hell. Complete, 100 percent out of the box.
This was before they started the tactical coxswain schools, which is basically dog-fighting our gun boats, and proper methods to escort high value assets through waterways. A Natural Gas Tanker would make a nice fuel air explosion right?
That high speed low drag stuff wasn't for me, sure I did the boarding's and such, we all have to, but I had no desire to transfer to the squids for BUDDs. Some of us did. I wanted a poster with a Coastie on it with the trident pin, captioned "So easy, a Coastie can do it" but my command didn't think that was funny. Those coasties that did become SEAL's..well none of us ever heard from'em again?
I just wanted to drive my tiny boat in the biggest seas and surf I could find, and rescue people in the storms the helo's can't fly in. Easy Peasy, I'm a simple man. Time flies...been a decade now since I retired. Scariest thing I do now is load bulls in the stock trailer.
-WW