Guardians,
Another update regarding port recovery from the CO of USCGC OAK.
ADM A
Guest Blog from Commanding Officer, CGC Oak At Anchor in Port au Prince, Republic of Haiti January 25, 2010
The crew keeps telling me how happy they are for the chance to be here in Haiti helping make things better, shared CDR Mike Glander. Many have told me they feel this is the most personally rewarding thing they have ever done.
A Day in Haiti
Today, the Coast Guard Cutter OAK sits at anchor very close to the Port Terminal in downtown Port-au-Prince. Our folks have spent most of the day in our two small boats zipping around the harbor, transporting the embarked MTSRU Team to their various inspection, assessment, and meeting points around the harbor. The MTSRU is the Maritime Transportation System recovery Unit, the team on the ground working most closely with the Haitian Port authority in recovery efforts. During the day the MTSRU breaks up into several teams and goes in every direction.
Around 0930, our Operations Officer, LTjg Jenni Ferreira told me the boat was ready to deploy our last buoy near the Port Terminal. (We had already added several buoys to make the harbor safer, after consulting with the two Haitian Harbor Pilots, but this last buoy was going in shallow water, and had to be deployed by our work-boat.) I jumped in and the coxswain, BM2 Tommy Frantz took us over to the pier, since he already knew the general location of where this new buoy would go. We wanted to drop this buoy's anchor (sinker) right on the 13 ft depth curve so that the Haitian Harbor Pilots would know exactly how much water they had to work with while maneuvering ships and barges up to their only remaining pier at the Terminal.
Sinking a Buoy
Positioning tech, BM2 Pete Boggeln guided the boat up to the spot with his GPS and laptop, BM2 Frantz called out the depth, and BMC Chuck Gittings and BM3 Trey Thompson carefully tilted up the wooden board which held the 250lb sinker and mooring chain. The buoy and sinker slid right in, and BM2 Boggeln recorded the position so that he could notify U.S. and British Admiralty authorities that a chart update would be needed showing the buoy.
Meeting with Haitian Port Authority, Navy Dive Teams and Port Security Unit
The boat dropped me off at the pier where I was hoping to meet the CG Port Security Unit folks who had just arrived to help the Haitian Port authority keep the terminal nice and safe while all the assessment and offloading was going on. The Navy dive teams and their engineers were all over (and under) the pier continuing with their assessments and recommendations. We saw a contingent of Columbian Red Cross folks offloading humanitarian aid.
On the Bridge of CGC OAK – Keeping Track of Vessel Offloads
When I got back to the ship at anchor around 1200, I peeked in on the bridge team, who was busy managing and monitoring the movement of vessels in the harbor. They had updated their status board to show that the two vessels who had completed their offloads yesterday had departed. The floating Vessel Traffic Management System that OAK's crew and the MTSRU set up was helping the Haitians keep the harbor orderly. Earlier yesterday, this Team had assigned each vessel an anchorage in which to wait while the Haitian Port Authority checked their plans and readied to receive the ships for offloading.
Helping Haitian CG Station Killick
Meanwhile, our ship's Engineer Officer (EO), Chief Warrant Officer Rich Belcher gave me an update on what was going on at the Haitian Coast Guard (Garde Cote) Base at Killick, where he had been all morning. We knew the Base suffered a lot of damage in the quake, and the Coast Guard Cutter LEGARE's crew was there today, where it had been for several days, working hard to reconstitute the small Garde Cote force. LEGARE's EO, LT Mike Dykema, was leading a clean-up and assessment team of LEGARE crewmembers who were getting ready to start helping the Garde Cote fix up some of its boats. The two EO's had compared notes that morning and were sharpening the plan.
Haitian Garde Cote boats are one of CWO Belcher's specialty - he works directly with the Haitian engineers every six months when OAK comes to Port au Prince for an international exchange. He got busy hatching a plan to enlist the help of LT Jason Dunn's team, back at the Industrial Support Activity in Miami - to create a list and purchase the boat parts that were needed. (The Garde Cote's warehouse, unfortunately, was condemned.)
In the afternoon, MK2 Perry Clement and EM3 Logan Richards went back over to Killick to assist LEGARE's engineers.
Early Sunsets, Long Days
The sun sets early in Haiti in the winter, because of the time zone, and soon the boats will all start heading back to our ship where we make plans for the next day, get a little rest, and continue to go about the normal ship routine of standing watches. (Most of the crew are standing more watches than normal at their different stations, since so many folks are ashore or out in the boats all day.) The days are long, but no one is complaining. Over and over, members of OAK's crew keep telling me how happy they are for the chance to be here in Haiti helping make things better. Many have told me they feel this is the most personally rewarding thing they have ever done.
