Meeting The Coast Guard

As a student in vessel operation, I found the opportunity to meet the coast guard a fantastic way to build my net worth and knowledge of what I want to do in the future. Before coming to New York Harbor School, I didn’t know about the Coast Guard until it was mentioned to me in my CTE (Career Technical Education), and I found it very interesting. What was more than interesting was that, as a student, I had the opportunity to meet some U.S. Coast Guard members, which was great. I was excited to meet the Coast Guard crew, and when they came to our school on their Coast Guard Boat, which was a  45 RBM (Response Boat-Medium), we were allowed to have a ride with them. In our meeting with the Coast Guard, students were allowed to ask questions, drive the boat, and do drills such as the Man Over Boat and the practice of CPR. The  Coast Guard crews were friendly and fun people to talk to. They were full of experiences and willing to share many of the situations they experienced in the coast guard. They made it clear to us that not everything is fun, but also not everything is tiring or boring. It is hard work that should be done, which is what got them all into their position. The boat captain in our meeting with the Coast Guard was Chris, a lovely person who revealed to me most of the things the crew in the boats do. He told me they always have schedules on where to patrol through the day and how some days are more interesting than others. By this, I mean that some days when so many boats are operating, many coast guards are patrolling the waters to keep everything under control. Chris mentioned that a fun thing about being part of the Coast Guard is that you can have the opportunity to break Ice in the winter, which is just going with the boat and trying to drive around the Ice to make it disappear. I was interested in knowing if anything scary ever happened to Chris during his time in the Coast Guard, and he did mention that there was just one time he had to patrol one boat full of illegal products where he thought he would have to fight back in defense by using their weapons. But as said before, not everything will be fun, and not everything will be wrong. The Coast Guard members let us know their stories on how they decided to join. They mention that to get into the coast guard, they first had to go through basic boot camping training. Basic training takes about eight weeks to complete, and then you need to do about four years in the field practicing what was learned. In the meeting with the coast guard, I realized that directions are told by degrees repeating four numbers. For example, if a person had to be rescued in the water, some tips would be given as 0090 or 0040, depending on where the boat is going. At the end of the meeting, I wondered if I wanted to join the Coast Guard since it sounded exciting and fun to be included in. I felt that even if I didn’t join the uscg, I would still have a story to tell and a net worth with influential people who could help me a lot. Getting to know the Coast Guard is a fantastic thing that can happen since if I have a younger family member or any family member that desires to join the Coast Guard, I would be able to help them with that.   

-Nehemias Hernandez