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Cmdr. John Rivers and I'm the executive officer here at Coast Guard
Air Station Houston. We're here for anybody to come and take a look at what we got. We also
had a search and rescue demonstration a couple minutes ago.
The helicopters open for anybody to take a look at answer any questions they like kids can
hop in the front and take a look at what we got and look at the controls
This way they have a chance to sit in a Coast Guard aircraft. The turn outs been great
I've done about an hour and a half over here and we've had a steady
stream of people on both sides of the aircraft and packing the aircraft.
They get a chance for a first hand opportunity to see
what we do at least from the aviation perspective
The MH-65 will be arriving on scene and we're going to simulate doing a normal search pattern
We can do this anywhere on the sea at night during the day
When a call comes into one of our command centers the SAR controller will
determines what's the most effective resource to use. It can be an aircraft whether its a
its a helicopter a large cutter or a small boat. What ever might be the closest unit
can get there the fastest. So the term SAR stands for?
Search and rescue. So thats what you guys do the best and Semper Paratus means
Always ready. And you have an average day you guys are daggon busy
aren't ya? That's true in an average day we can save up to 15 lives,
assist 117 people in distress, conduct 90 search and rescue operations
protect 2.8 million in property, enforce 129 security zones,
and interdict up to 15 tons of illegal drugs trying to get into the country
and on the list that we have in front of us here
and thats about a third of what you guys do everyday. That is correct we are a very busy organization
being America's firth armed service. We actually
a unique ability because we are both a military service and a law enforcement agency.
Ahhh, very very important. Now you've got crewmembers aboard the aircraft
and this crew coordination that the coast guard has is impeccable
because you guys can team up with somebody anywhere in the country
Thats correct all of our aircrafts are the same everything is standardized
procedures of search and rescue it could be a crew of a pilot form here
a flight mech from Alaska and a rescuer swimmer from Puerto Rico and their all going to be able to
function and operate so well. Thats why we were so successful in New Orleans during
during hurricane Katrina. We had crewmembers from all around the country that were able to operate
together. Alright who's in control of the mission right now?
Right now the mission controller is the pilot in command he is
actually flying single pilot today which the the MH-65 has the capability to do
and that is Lt. Jason Molanari, he's in the right seat and he is conducting the hoisting evolution.