Guardians,
I traveled to Tampa and St. Petersburg to visit with our Coast Guard personnel in the area and to speak to the local Propeller Club and the Tampa Bay Harbor Safety and Security Committee (TBHSSC) about our current activities in Haiti as well as some of the other maritime challenges facing our Service.
The Propeller Club was created to promote, further, and support an American Merchant Marine and aid in the development of river, Great Lakes and harbor improvements. We have a long-standing and beneficial relationship with this industry group. Many thanks to Tony Austin, President of the International Propeller Club, Tampa; RADM William Merlin, USCG (Ret); and Capt Allen Thompson, Jr., USCG (Ret) for their support. Capt Tim Close, CO of Sector Tampa-St. Petersburg, and Capt Todd Sokalzak, CO of AIRSTA Clearwater, were also in attendance.
The TBHSSC provides a forum for all maritime stakeholders to address safety, security, and related maritime issues in Tampa Bay. The TBHSSC has recently been designated as the representative of Tampa Bay to the Marine Transportation System Task Force. Thank you to Terry Fluke, Chairman of the TBHSSC and RADM William Merlin, USCG (Ret) for their assistance as well.
I also provided remarks at a memorial for the 30th anniversary of the BLACKTHORN sinking on January 28th, 1980. The ceremony was held at BLACKTHORN Memorial Park which was dedicated in 1982 and sits at the north end of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in St. Petersburg (pictured at right). After colliding with the freighter CAPRICORN, the BLACKTHORN sank in three minutes claiming 23 of the 50 lives aboard. While it was a terrible tragedy, we learned many valuable lessons which are passed along to future cutter command cadre at the Command and Operations School (http://www.cga.edu/LDC_display.aspx?id=627) at the Coast Guard Academy. This school was created as a result of the BLACKTHORN and in addition to the Memorial in St. Petersburg, it serves as a living reminder of that terrible accident.
