Over The Bow Volume 74 Issue 1 Spring 2016 | Page 35

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In the waning years of that decade, Division 14 participated in a search and rescue drill, SAREX ’98, which would presage the most challenging operation of them all, the 9/11 attack response. SAREX ’98 raised the specter of a sophisticated terrorist attack in New York Harbor, on a departing Staten Island Ferry with 300 passengers aboard. As it turned out, that part of the simulated incident was a diversion, as the true target was a fictitious 75-foot fishing vessel located in Gravesend Bay, in flames and rapidly sinking with people in the water, critical casualties on board, and minutes away from slipping beneath the surface.

The purpose of the exercise was to test our surge capabilities, communications proficiencies and our adaptability to changing mission parameters under stress. The surge was indeed impressive, as 16 Auxiliary surface facilities, four 41-foot CG UTBs, two CG black hulled tugs, and one Auxiliary air facility responded. The FDNY and Staten Island’s Volunteer Heart Ambulance Service were also on hand at Station New York in Rosebank, Staten Island.

Under considerable stress and within short time constraints, approximately 80 floats representing the fishing vessel’s occupants were recovered and transferred to the waiting facilities at Station New York.

During the after-action debriefing, valuable lessons were recounted and analyzed in a process that would greatly enhance our command and control and communications proficiencies when truly needed in the realities experienced three years later.

On the morning of 11 September 2001, Division 14 like the rest of the country woke up to what would become the “new normalcy” of USCG Commandant Admiral James Loy’s apt description.

I was home on the morning of 11 September, and after the South Tower of the World Trade Center was hit, immediately picked up the telephone and requested orders from our SO-OP. Shockingly, by that point in time, he had received no direction or information through the Auxiliary chain of leadership and management. That became perfectly understandable later when it was revealed the District Operations Staff Officer was stranded in, of all places, Washington, DC, on a business trip.

As the Immediate Past Division Captain, I was available and asked to travel to Activities New York (as Sector NY was then known), get our orders verbally, and report back to our Division Staff Officer. I did so, and after a few revisions, our final orders from the Coast Guard were, “Get your boats out, and cover Station New York for 48 hours.” I reported back to the SO-OP as directed, and called all facility owners, coxswains and crew members in Flotilla 14-02, of which I was also the FSO-OP. We responded.

In the days following 11 September, members of Division 14 continued to answer the call, some receiving the Transportation Department 9/11 Ribbon for their services. They maintained communication watches, conducted on-water patrols and even supplied the USCGC Tahoma with needed supplies from area retailers and made shuttle runs. Marta Pabon of Flotilla 14-01 was later awarded the 9/11 Medal, for reporting to the Battery Park Coast Guard Station from her workplace on Canal Street in Manhattan, and at the request of the then DIRAUX, made water runs to the rescue workers at Ground Zero.

Division 14 was tested, and that day and in the years that followed, yielded some amazing results.

In the spring of 2000, we were introduced to Stewart Sutherland, owner of the famed MV Lady B. This was without a doubt one of the most profound developments in the history of Division 14, one that would irrevocably alter the way the division would approach surface operations, and further

Celebrating Fifty Years of Service