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Sector New York Trip

(Choosing the Coast Guard Academy, Class of 2014) Permanent link All Posts

Today was another eye opening day into the operational Coast Guard—this time to see what a Coast Guard sector is like. After our formal room and wing inspection, a group of 4/c cadets and I boarded a bus to visit Coast Guard Sector New York. The bus ride was three hours long, which was actually great because I was up until 1:30 in the morning cleaning the heads (bathrooms) for our wing area inspections.

When we arrived, an ensign who had recently graduated from the Academy greeted us and gave us a presentation on sectors, an area of the Coast Guard that I was completely unfamiliar with. According to him, sectors are in charge of preventing and responding to natural disasters or anything similar. Their biggest responsibility is keeping ports and waterways safe, and they regularly board merchant vessels and check their cargo, which is an example of prevention.

Remember when that plane crashed into the Hudson River last year? The Coast Guard was on scene shortly afterward. Soon after the plane had landed in the river, the Coast Guard sent out small boats to help the people off of the wings of US Airways Flight 1549 and out of the Hudson in the cold January weather. It was quite an accomplishment for the pilot and the Coast Guard sector. It seems like no matter where you go in the Coast Guard something exciting is going to happen, and we’ll be there to take care of it.

In addition to the presentation, we were given a tour of the control room and the small boat station, which was great. The control room monitors the whole sector and watches the port. The Coast Guard has this area well covered; let’s just say that it would be pretty hard for someone to go unnoticed in the areas that the sector monitors. The response boats look really fun to ride in. I’m actually hoping that I’ll get to go to a small boat station now during 3/c summer. I have to go now, but if you have any further inquires on my sector experience, feel free to shoot me an email at Samuel.J.Keith@uscga.edu

Best,
4/c Jordan Keith

More about Jordan.

Posted by Leann Strickland at 2/15/2012 4:11 PM