Get ready to whiten those knuckles and hold fast as we get underway to talk with Coast Guard veterans about the most daring, dangerous, and epic sea stories ever told. Whether facing ruthless men who prey on other mariners or storms that turn calm seas into graveyards, those who go down to the sea and cast off lines enter the most challenging and dangerous environment on earth. Only here will you hear their stories and the lessons gained through their experience.
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Charles ‘Tex’ McDonald Holt talks a Texas flood that left him in a fight for survival after his boat capsized, and the friend who defied orders to save him.
AST1 (Ret.) Matt Crow talks a boat that broke up in the surf off Puerto Rico and the Herculean effort to get all nine survivors out of the water and to safety.
Episode 9: Aviation Survival Technician Cody Wright talks a deadly boat collision on the Great Lakes and how seemingly minor lessons from the service’s most difficult school prepared him to adapt, overcome, & persevere when lives, including his own, were on the line.
Chief Petty Officer (Ret.) Todd Fletcher talks a man overboard during a security boarding off the South Carolina coast, the MEDEVAC that followed, and how a small Alaskan island nearly became a graveyard for his boat and crew.
Episode 7: Maritime Enforcement Specialist Chief (Ret.) Carlos Perez talks how the 9/11 attacks played out in view of his boat crew, the maritime evacuation of lower Manhattan, and dealing with the realization that we as responders can do everything possible, but won’t always be able to make a difference to prevent a tragedy.
Boatswain (Ret.) Bob Downs talks a real fast night time tow into Oregon’s Chetco River, a search of a boat for an armed suspect, and a migrant interdiction off the Texas coast.
The Lunkleys talk a Coast Guard Medal case that ended in the successful rescue a victim trapped in a capsized boat and the lifelong relationships created by a close knit service whose everyday missions involve life and death.
Senior Chief (Ret.) Tom Rooks talks a helicopter crash on the flight deck of an underway cutter and the intense levels of the responsibility the USCG places on even its most junior personnel.
Boatswain (Ret.) Tim Woody talks a night time surf case at the mouth of California’s Noyo River and the dangers of the “press to respond” that all rescuers feel.