View Full Version : US Customs and Border Protection - thumbs up!
So yesterday we had a advanced life support patient who needed evacuated from the island, and because of the wretched weather no planes were flying, and our county emergency services boats were all out of commission for various reasons.
As is usual in this situation, we got on the horn to the US Coast Guard, and they agreed to come by ASAP and help out. It normally takes about 30 mins of paper-pushing via radio/phone with their command to get this to happen (used to be 5 mins, but they consolidated their commands for "efficiency", and moved the local command elsewhere, and now it efficiently takes much longer...). To their credit, the Coast Guard crew that was likely going to be responding decided on their own to do a cruise in our direction at high speed, just in case they got approved, so they arrived about 1 minute after approval was given.
In a very small 4-person boat.
Into which we had to figure out how to stuff the patient, the spouse of the patient, the medical care providers, and all the gear. It looked pretty complicated.
When, out of the blue, roars up the big Customs/Border Protection boat for our region. "We heard your traffic, and we dropped by to see if y'all needed a hand." So they did the transport for us. What nice guys! Told us they'd be happy to help out like this anytime, if they weren't chasing smugglers.
Sometimes your tax dollars buy customer service after all...
Here's the wee Coast Guard boat we were trying to stuff people into:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-lZdwUWGG8xI/UQrh_23iNVI/AAAAAAAAHME/yqTUIrHuInM/s640/Awesomized.jpg
And here's the Border Patrol vessel that roared up:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ouBHIR-t3ow/UQrkDNQ5uTI/AAAAAAAAHMM/z60CBNie7NU/s640/Awesomized.jpg
If you were that happy to see that big boat, I can only imagine what was going through the minds of the patient and his/her spouse! Great story! Hope it has a happy ending for all.
One of these agencies has a cushier budget :-)
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-leXIBSLaJ_A/UQro-uy7WEI/AAAAAAAAHMo/ZnX-aV6vOFY/s640/Awesomized.jpg
Wow, yay. How did the patient do?
Wow, yay. How did the patient do?
Positive outcome so far! Ironically, it was a member of one of our local emergency services organizations, and he's now stable and in the hospital on the mainland, expecting to return home soon-ish, probably by a more normal means of transport :-)
The Coast Guard and Border Patrol response likely saved his life though.
Nice! I'm glad to hear that the patient is doing well. I love stories like this. Thanks for sharing!
Nice to read a positive report about services.
We like those Coast Guard people!!!! Small and mighty, but the Border PAtrol peeps, good job!
Square Peg
2-1-13, 12:46am
That is a nice counterpoint to the story I heard from Canada yesterday: http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/01/30/ontario-man-disputes-5400-bill-for-being-rescued-while-ice-fishing/
CBP actually doing something in a timely manner? Wow, not what I'm used to from dealing with them almost daily on the trade side.
We like those Coast Guard people!!!! Small and mighty, but the Border PAtrol peeps, good job!Hey we had BIG boats too :-)! And fast jet boats like ICE. And helicopters and aircraft and well...all sorts of fun things :-)!
I guess the CG has changed since my time in as (when I was at a small boat station, or even on a larger patrol boat) we did not have to wait for any command approval to do anything. As long as the Petty Officer on Duty (an enlisted crew member standing watch) said to go - you went. The small boat stations (with bigger boats then the photo Bae posted but not by much - 3 person crews on 42 ft the norm) were run like firehouses. We lived at the station house and worked 72/48 hours shifts (72 hours on, 48 hours off). There were two crews that switched off duty every 48 hours (with one day both crews spent togethjer for training, cleaning the station house, etc...). If we got a call, whatever crew was on duty took one or two of the boats and went out on the call. No asking permission or contacting anyone. But that was back in ye olde olden tymes, when dinosaurs walked the earth so things have probably changed. In any case, glad to see someone was there to help these people. And again Bae, thanks for being a CG Aux. person as they do sooo much to help others when those lazy CG can't get there to help!!
Here's a little You Tube video of life on a small boat station in Hawaii. First part is all scenes from Hawaii (not a bad place to be stationed at as I was in Honolulu for awhile on a patrol boat) but watch it to the part about the little CG boat in the high suf - fun!! Lots of other fun CG videos on that site too. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh_N-CwJXX4
That is a nice counterpoint to the story I heard from Canada yesterday: http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/01/30/ontario-man-disputes-5400-bill-for-being-rescued-while-ice-fishing/It's actually pretty common to charge for a rescue. Especially those mountain rescues froo climbers.
I guess the CG has changed since my time in as (when I was at a small boat station, or even on a larger patrol boat) we did not have to wait for any command approval to do anything.
As it happens, I went to a meeting last month on all of the mutual-aid agreements in the area for emergency services coverage, it is a bit of a mess because of all of the overlapping jurisdictions and the international border. The general rule is that almost all of these agencies will help anyone else out at the drop of a hat, and sort out the details later.
The *specific* case of this sort of emergency medical evacuation requires some authorization by the CG in some circumstances - they won't do a run for a non-viable patient in dangerous conditions, and their definition of non-viable is a bit different than ours - we have one of the nation's top emergency medical services operations here, and have more resources and a higher save rate than is typical. They also won't do a run if there is another reasonable alternative that they don't have to pay for :-) That is, in this particular event, they had to have a little conversation first. Note in my account that the CG boat crew started their run well before they had permission anyways :-)
The CG folks from the local stations however will come out in any condition to help us, without asking for permission, if we really really need it. They pulled someone off two years ago during a storm so bad that *nothing* was getting on or off the island. Their officer asked the crew if anyone was willing to volunteer to try it, he wasn't going to order them to, conditions were too bad, and they all came.
Love those guys and gals.
Yeah I guess it has changed as I never remember asking anyone for permission for anything - and of course we didn't ask for crew member sto volunteer to go - we ordered them too even if in the middle of 50 foot seas during a hurricane. But the person in charge of the watch (if the station commander - who is usually an enlisted Master Chief - isn't around) has a lot of discretion as to what calls they will go out on. And there is the fact that in storms, when every boat and crew member is out working already, you have to do a triage kind of thing and determine who gets rescued first based on lots of different factors - including if someone else (CG Aux for instance or Customs or even a private civilian boat) is closer and can do it easier. The good thing about the CG is that it can operate in international waters so there is rarely any jurisdictional issues. And that too is highly discretionary and at the station or boat commanders whim.
Nice story glad the patient is doing good. I do believe many agencies of the Fed and state governments do a good job but the 24 hour news cycle is not interested in such stories.
Tonight, it was the Coast Guard who saved us.
We had a med-evac patient, needed to get off the island to mainland ASAP. Weather was really nasty, no commercial med-evac helicopter or fixed-wing would try to come out. Navy scrambled a flight, they waved off halfway over as the weather closed in. Probably the right call, I was at the landing zone managing it at that instant, and I couldn't see my own feet.
The Coast Guard, who had alerted us they would be "standing by in case", showed up in a New Improved Super-Fast Boat, much like that Customs boat in the original post, moments after they heard the Navy couldn't manage it. Apparently that incident upset their pride a bit, and they upgraded. From how fast they responded once they heard the wave-off, they'd snuck over here on some pretense just to be close, Just In Case.
Love those guys and gals. Saved a good friend of mine tonight.
Sometimes I think this forum needs a "Like" button....
Yay CG - the little boats that can :-)! Of course who need a fast boat when you can have one that just powers thru those rough seas and can do 365 degree complete roll-overs underwater to get their man :-)! A little CG trainiing class (video) to test out a new boat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_Ot9A-8Qm0&feature=player_detailpage Fun!
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