http://www.daviddsemsheadquarters.com/HonorandTribute

The purpose of the web page is to educate, Inform, and pay tribute to the several thousand first responders, Emergency medical technicians, Emergency medical specialists, And paramedics both volunteer and paid.

In Emergency medical services, many people become sick and injured in a variety of places, sometimes in vehicle accidents, Assaults. Individuals can suddenly become ill at restaurants or in their offices. In the state of Michigan which is surrounded by the five lakes Refer to as the great lakes. A large industry uses the great lakes for transportation of raw materials, needed for industry; the great lakes are served by many freighters that serve on the water transporting assorted materials.

The great lakes are also used by many pleasure craft, sightseeing boats etc. The United States coast guard as well as the Canadian coast guard had been charged for over 210 years. Many Coast Guard Personnel are Red Cross trained who respond to various medical and traumatic emergencies on the great lakes examples such as shipping personnel who become ill or are injured and due to the size and distance of the waters they travel, the coast guard responds either by boats and or helicopters to extricate the sick or injured. In most instances the sick or injured patient is then transported to land and turned over to EMS Personnel who continue treatment, and transportation to the nearest and appropriate hospital.

This page is intended to show the assets of the United States and Canadian Coast Guard are utilized to provide Emergency Medical treatment, stabilization of the patient, followed then by coordinating the transport of the patient by the Coast Guard to waiting Emergency Medical Technicians who continue the care and transportation by advanced life support agencies to the appropriate medical facility.

HOMELAND SECURITY

The United States Coast Guard's homeland security mission is not new to us. It is more visible today than it was prior to the tragic events of September 11, 2001, but it is just as important as it was when we first began protecting our national sovereignty 211 years ago. The Coast Guard maintains a clear vision and a keen sense of vigilance while keeping watch for threats to our security and those who would do us harm.

As part of Operation Noble Eagle, the Coast Guard is at a heightened state of alert protecting more than 361 ports and 95,000 miles of coastline, America's longest border. The Coast Guard continues to play an integral role in maintaining the operations of our ports and waterways by providing a secure environment in which mariners and the American people can safely go about the business of living and working freely.

In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Coast Guard immediately mobilized more than 2,000 Reservists in the largest homeland defense and port security operation since World War II. The Coast Guard has increased its vigilance, readiness, and patrols to protect the country's 95,000 miles of coastline, including the Great Lakes and inland waterways.

The Coast Guard's Homeland Security Role Includes:

Protect ports, the flow of commerce, and the marine transportation system from terrorism.

Maintain maritime border security against illegal drugs, illegal aliens, firearms, and weapons of mass destruction.

Ensure that we can rapidly deploy and resupply our military assets, both by keeping Coast Guard units at a high state of readiness, and by keeping marine transportation open for the transit assets and personnel from other branches of the armed forces.

Protect against illegal fishing and indiscriminate destruction of living marine resources, prevention and response to oil and hazardous material spills--both accidental and intentional.

Coordinate efforts and intelligence with federal, state, and local agencies.

Operation Noble Eagle refers to U.S. military operations associated with homeland defense and civil support to federal, state and local agencies in the United States, and includes the increased security measures taken after the September 11 terrorist attacks. The operation involves joint agency coordination and cooperation to ensure our nation and borders are protected from future attacks. An increased presence will prevent and deter those who would cause harm to innocent Americans.

Operation Enduring Freedom refers generally to U.S. military operations associated with the war on terrorism outside the United States. Coast Guard port security units have deployed in support of this operation.

Canada and the United States are initiating a cross border program to share information and increase security boardings on foreign commercial ships entering the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes. This program will be in place before the Seaway opens March 26. The events of September 11, 2001 demonstrated the need for increased security measures to protect our waterways. The threat is real; every ship that transits our waters passes critical infrastructure and large population areas. Both countries are working together to provide maximum security, while minimizing disruption to commercial shipping.

All ships entering the St. Lawrence Seaway have to give 96-hour advance notification of arrival to officials of both Canada and the United States. Ships failing to give notice or providing incomplete notice will be prohibited from entering the Seaway. The U.S. Coast Guard and the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency special analysis units will conduct initial screening of the ship's information and submit the crew and passenger list to a centralized information center to review for any potential threats. If a potential threat is identified, the ship will be boarded for a security review by a team of personnel from Canadian agencies before it enters the Seaway and the Great Lakes. These boardings are in addition to random boardings and other security measures already in place.

Many agencies have worked together to create this program, including Transport Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation, U.S. Customs, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the U.S. Consul General's Office in Montreal. Their efforts are vital to protecting the heartland of Canada and the United States--the St. Lawrence Seaway/Great Lakes system generates $3 billion annually and 17,000 jobs in Canada and adds another $2 billion and more than 150,000 jobs in the United States as nearly 200 millions tons of cargo are moved each year. "Working together our two great nations have and will continue to ensure that the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes are a safe, secure and economically sound maritime system," according to RADM James D. Hull, Commander 9th U.S. Coast Guard District.

Coast Guard Enlists Mariners for Homeland Security

In the wake of the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, Coast Guard Marine Safety Office Providence and Coast Guard Group Woods Hole are encouraging recreational and commercial mariners to participate in a national effort to protect the country's shores from aggressors.

"Those who work at sea, along the coasts, and in coastal communities know best what is, or is not ordinary," said Senior Chief Mario Tomellini of MSO Providence. "They can be valuable contributors to the protection of our nation by reporting suspicious activities in and around the water."

The Maritime Domain Awareness program is a joint effort by the Marine Safety Office in Providence and Coast Guard Group Woods Hole to provide a hotline 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which people can call to report any unusual or questionable activity on the water in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Some examples of unusual or suspicious activities to report include:

Unfamiliar individuals who:

* Loiter or take photos, notes or sketches near commercial/passenger vessel activities, bridges or waterside facilities

* Attempt to rent/buy fishing or recreational vessels with cash for short term use

* Attempt to gain access to waterside facilities without proper identification

Vessels that:

* Circle in and around pilings, particularly near commercial traffic

* Loiter offshore, near commercial/passenger vessel activities

Other items of interest/concern:

* Suspicious attachments to bridges and overpasses

* Vehicles left unattended or abandoned near commercial/passenger facilities

* Unusual packages or deliveries

* Vendors or roadside food stands recently established near commercial passenger terminals or waterside facilities

To report any suspicious or unusual activities, call Coast Guard Group Woods Hole at (508) 457-3211 or in the event of an emergency, dial 911.

Average Day for the Coast Guard

The Coast Guard, during an average day, will:

•Conduct 109 Search and Rescue Cases

•Save 10 lives

•Assist 192 people in distress

•Protect $2,791,841 in property

•Launch 396 small boat missions

•Launch 164 aircraft missions, logging 324 hours

•Board 144 vessels

•Seize 169 pounds of marijuana and 306 pounds of cocaine worth $9,589,000

•Interdict and rescue 14 illegal migrants

•Board 100 large vessels for port safety checks

•Respond to 20 oil or hazardous chemical spills totaling 2,800 gallons

•Service 135 aids to navigation

Paramedics join Coast Guard Patrols

Irondequoit Volunteer Ambulance paramedics in New York, are taking to the water to help the U.S. Coast Guard provide emergency medical services to local boaters. Since July, Irondequoit Volunteer Ambulance paramedics have been serving aboard weekend Coast Guard patrols on Lake Ontario, Irondequoit Bay and the Genesee River.

While the Coast Guard has its own emergency medical technicians, having paramedics -- who are allowed to administer drugs, start airways and perform other treatments the technicians cannot -- on the boats saves time and lives, said Irondequoit the Ambulance Deputy Chief.

With a medical emergency on the lake, if you have to take somebody into shore for treatment that can be a two-hour ride. That is crucial time. The paramedic is right there as part of the boat crew and as soon as the patient is on board the vessel, medical treatment can begin.

Paramedics have already treated three or four critical emergencies since the program began.

The Paramedic Ride Along initiative is supported by a $10,000 grant secured by New York State Assemblyman Joseph D. Morelle, D-Irondequoit. Siteing the essential need in increasing boater safety on regional waterways.

The money will help offset the cost of upgrading medical equipment -- including a heart monitor that can fax vital information to an area hospital while the patient is en route -- for use on the waterways, as well as pay for additional training and the cost of providing the paramedics. Coast Guard officials state, "This allows us to provide a higher level of medical care."

Why is there so much information on this Emergency Medical Services web site about the United States Coast Guard? The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States military. Up until recently The Coast Guard has been viewed as only a coastal waterways watch.

The Coast Guard is a highly trained group of men and women charged with the safety of our waterways, the correlation between the Coast Guard and Emergency Medical Services has and remains a close Operating Group.

The United States Coast Guard trains its personnel in all levels of Pre- Hospital emergency care. Each and every Coast Guard personnel are trained from Basic first aid through the levels of Basic emergency medical technicians, emergency medical technician specialists and emergency medical technician paramedics. They respond to medical and trauma injuries on waterways all over the United States.

Their mold of transportation consists of Coast Guard Rapid Response Vessels, Buoy Tenders, Patrol Boats, and both long and short range Helicopters. They stabilize patients and fly or shuttle their patients to shore and in most cases, turning over patient care to Emergency Medical Services Personnel at pre-designated locations.

Without the United States Coast Guard, patients who are fighting the golden hour would face critical life threatening and even fatal consequences without this joint cooperation, mutual aid and RESPECT.

The New Great Lakes Icebreaker Mackinaw set to be delivered to the Coast Guard in October 2005. A multi-mission vessel, designed to maintain buoys and other aids-to-navigation in addition to icebreaking duties. This vessel will have the capacity for search and rescue, marine environmental response, maritime law enforcement, and Homeland security roles.

The Mackinaw is 240 ft long, and has a maximum beam of 60 ft, designed to accommodate a crew of 55. Mackinaw (30) is outfitted with a state of the art bridge and machinery systems. The new vessel is a diesel electric integrated propulsion plant along with azimuth podded propulsions. The new Mackinaw will have the capability to break 32” of level ice at 3 knots with high tech maneuverability characteristics.

The new Mackinaw (30) is replacing the current Mackinaw (83) both vessels will remain home-ported in Cheboygan, Michigan the later becoming a museum, however the Mackinaw (83) will remain in a 5 year recall status. The name “MACKINAW,” has become an icon representing the epitome of Coast Guard service on the Great Lakes. To many generations of mariners the Mackinaw has always been there, strong, reliable, and inspiring confidence.

The first cutter home ported in Grand Haven was USCGC Escanaba (WPG-77). She arrived, coated with ice, in the winter of 1932 to a warm welcome by the community and the Grand Haven High School band. She was a "Michigan" ship from the beginning, built at Defoe Works in Bay City and commissioned soon after for the arduous duty of ice breaking on Lake Michigan. In early 1942, Escanaba was transferred to war duty in the North Atlantic and assigned to the "Greenland Patrol".

While carrying out escort duties for many of the Allied convoys bound for Greenland and Iceland, Escanaba rescued survivors of two torpedoed ships, the USS Cherokee, rescuing 22 men on June 15, 1942 and the USS Dorchester, rescuing 133 more on February 3, 1943. Four months later, Escanaba was steaming in company with the cutters Mojave, Tampa, Storis, Algonquin and Raritan providing protection to a convoy enroute to Newfoundland. During the early morning hours of June 13, 1943, Escanaba herself was torpedoed and quickly sank. Raritan picked up the only two survivors, while 101 friends and neighbors of Grand Haven were lost forever to both the perils of war and the sea.

The anguish of this small, close knit community over the devastating loss of Escanaba was channeled into raising one million dollars in war bonds to purchase a replacement cutter the following year. The third, and most recent Escanaba, a 270-foot Famous Class cutter, was commissioned during festival week in Grand Haven in 1987. The highlight of the annual Coast Guard Festival celebration is the National Memorial Service at Escanaba Park on the Grand Haven waterfront. This Friday-afternoon event during every festival week commemorates the tragic loss of the first Escanaba in World War II and the sacrifice of all Coast Guard members who have died while fulfilling the Coast Guard Motto "SEMPER PARATUS" ("Always Ready").

The Coast Guard Cutter BRAMBLE was decommissioned on 22 May 2003. Design and construction for the USCGC BRAMBLE (WLB-392) occurred at Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Corporation in Duluth, Minnesota. BRAMBLE’s keel was laid on 02 August 1943, she was launched on 23 October 1943 and was commissioned on 22 April 1944. The original cost for the hull and machinery was $925,464. BRAMBLE is one of 39 original 180-foot seagoing buoy tenders built between 1942 and 1944. All of the original tenders, except the IRONWOOD, were built in Duluth.

In the course of BRAMBLE’s service, the cutter had been awarded many awards and ribbons. She has received the Department of Transportation Gold Medal, CG Unit Commendation, CG Meritorious Unit Commendation, CG "E" Ribbon, CG Bicentennial Unit Commendation, American Campaign Medal, WWII Victory Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Arctic Service Medal and the Special OPS Service Ribbon.

With the new technology evolving, the door has opened for the Coast Guard Cutter HOLLYHOCK (WLB-214) which has taken over the primary mission of buoy tending that the 180-foot BRAMBLE had held. The new 225-foot HOLLYHOCK is also able to help with environmental cleanups, search and rescue, law enforcement and icebreaking. She has now been commissioned and placed into service in Port Huron, Michigan.

My family and I had an opportunity to attend the United States Coast Festival in Grand Haven Michigan marking its birthday. At the festival we had an opportunity to both tour the Hollyhock and speak to members of the crew. The conversation later turned to the collision of the hollyhock with the MV Stewart J. Cort. The crew members related how the accident actually occurred and how “horrifying those minutes were.” The Hollyhock was assisting the 1000 foot plus Stewart J. Cort in heavy ice when the Hollyhock bumped the Cort, and sustained damage to her bow.

My family and I have the highest respect for the men and women who serve in the United States Coast Guard, and their continued role as a division of the United States Military who strive to defend our nation and who have answered the call in every conflict and War.

Speaking with the crew members was very educational the Hollyhock was not the first vessel to accidentally bump a freighter while braking through heavy ice, there have been other Coast Guard vessels involved in similar occurrences such as the “Ice Breaker Mackinaw,” and the Woodbrush, the point being is that accidents are going to occur when you have two or more vessels inherently close to one another the chances are going to rise of some type of inadvertent contact.

Because of the fact that the Hollyhock was a new asset, along with the Hollyhocks then upcoming commissioning ceremony, that had followed the retirement of the Coast Guard Buoy Tender Bramble, the accident became very high profile and subsequently was investigated by the United States Coast Guard Investigations Board that later determined that the Captain of the Hollyhock would be held responsible for the March Collision with the Cort. The investigation showed that the Captain was responsible but not grossly negligent for the inadvertent accident, and that he would and does remain Captain of the USCG Hollyhock.