Free Republic

The commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard tried Tuesday to assure skeptical and frustrated U.S. senators that she is not attempting to cover up the branch's failure to adequately handle cases of sexual assault and harassment at the service academy in Connecticut. Admiral Linda L. Fagan said she is committed to “transparency and accountability” within the Coast Guard and is trying to cooperate with congressional investigations and provide requested documents while also abiding by the constraints of an ongoing Office of Inspector General investigation and victim privacy concerns. “This is not a cover-up. I am committed to providing documents in...

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Friday dismissed the criminal indictment against a dive boat captain charged with manslaughter in the deaths of 34 people when the vessel caught fire and sank off the California coast three years ago. The 75-foot (23-meter) Conception caught fire while most of those onboard were sleeping, killing 33 passengers and a crew member. It is considered one of California’s worst maritime disasters. U.S. District Judge George Wu said in a ruling that the indictment, handed down on December 2020 against captain Jerry Nehl Boylan by a federal grand jury, must be thrown out...

Federal investigators on Thursday released a preliminary report on the Conception boat that killed nearly three-dozen people earlier this month off the coast of California, and said the entire crew was asleep when the blaze began. National Transportation Safety Board officials have said the full investigation could take more than a year, and preliminary findings highlight remaining questions as much as they provide answers as to how the tragedy happened. “A crew member sleeping in the wheelhouse berths was awakened by a noise and got up to investigate,” the report said. “As crew members awoke, the captain radioed a distress...

Boats like the Conception, which caught fire around 3 a.m. on Sept. 2 and sank, are required to have a crewmember keep watch at night. The National Transportation Safety Board has been investigating the tragedy and released a two-page preliminary report that said five crew members were sleeping in their quarters behind the wheelhouse on the second deck and another below deck when the fire broke out. The report comes as investigators seek to determine the cause and try to recover the wreckage of the Conception from the bottom of the sea amid an ongoing criminal probe conducted by the...

Surviving crew were driven back by the fire off the coast of Southern CaliforniaThey are said to have told investigators in 'very lengthy, detailed, comprehensive interviews' the harrowing story of the moments after the fire erupted MondayJumping from the ship's bridge to its main deck, they tried to get into the galleyWith the galley's doors on fire, they tried to get through windows but could not'At that point, due to heat, flames and smoke, the crew had to jump', officials sayTwo retrieved a skiff to see if they could rescue any survivors. None were foundThe only crew member to...

LOS ANGELES — One of the crew members aboard the dive boat Conception hadn’t been asleep long when a noise jolted him awake. He swung open the door of the wheelhouse — the top level of the 75-foot boat, located just above the galley — and was greeted by flames. As the fire raged in the predawn hours of Labor Day, the vessel’s captain made a frantic mayday call to the Coast Guard. Then he and four crew members jumped from the wheelhouse and climbed into a dinghy to get help from the Grape Escape, a fishing boat anchored nearby...

The Solomon Islands has informed U.S. authorities that all naval visits have been suspended until further notice following an earlier incident on Aug. 23 when a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, the Oliver Henry, was denied permission for a scheduled port call. The incident comes amid mounting concerns about Beijing’s influence in the region and Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s moves to deepen ties with the Chinese regime while solidifying his hold on power. According to the U.S. Embassy in Canberra: “On Aug. 29, the United States received formal notification from the Government of the Solomon Islands regarding a moratorium on...

The vessel was unable to get diplomatic clearance to make a scheduled stop in the islands. A US Coast Guard cutter was unable to get clearance for a scheduled port call in the Solomon Islands as concerns grow about China's influence on the Pacific nation. The vessel, called the Oliver Henry, was conducting patrols as part of an international mission to prevent illegal fishing when it sought to make a stop to refuel on the island of Guadalcanal, according to the Stars and Stripes newspaper. Coast Guard Lt Kristin Kam told the paper, which provides news to members of the...

A U.S. coast guard cutter conducting patrols as part of an international mission to prevent illegal fishing was recently unable to get clearance for a scheduled port call in the Solomon Islands, according to reports, an incident that comes amid growing concerns of Chinese influence on the Pacific nation. The cutter Oliver Henry was taking part in Operation Island Chief monitoring fishing activities in the Pacific, which came to a close on Friday, when it sought to make a scheduled stop on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, to refuel and re-provision, Coast Guard Lt. Kristin Kam told the Stars and Stripes newspaper....

Dubai -- A US Navy warship fired a warning flare to wave off an Iranian Revolutionary Guard speedboat coming straight at it during a tense encounter in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, officials said Tuesday. The incident on Monday involving the Guard and the Navy comes as tensions remain high over stalled negotiations over Iran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers and as Tehran enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels under decreasing international oversight. Meanwhile, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said Iran now plans to enrich uranium through a second set of advanced centrifuges at its underground Fordo...

The United States Coast Guard tweeted on Sunday that it was conducting a 'mass rescue' after 18 snowmobilers were trapped on a slab of ice that broke off a heavily frozen Lake Erie. The U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes announced on Sunday that an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station Detroit noticed nearly 20 people on an ice floe near Catawba Island, Ohio in Lake Erie at around 1pm. The stranded snowmobilers 'were looking for a route back to land' after the ice floe they were standing on broke apart from the rest of the ice on Lake Erie. At...

Two men and a woman were rescued from a deserted island on Tuesday after surviving on coconuts, conch and rats for 33 days, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard spotted people waving handmade flags on Monday The Coast Guard picked up the case as a rescue mission and returned to drop water, food and a radio to them on Monday.

To complement our recent article about "Ice-strengthened hulls for the US Navy" here is the same issue addressed from a United States Coast Guard (USCG) perspective, with input from the NAVSEA PEO Panel at SNA 2021 virtual symposium. Admiral Karl Schultz, Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard responds to a question submitted by Naval News on the possibility of ice-strengthened Cutters for Arctic Operations. When asked by Naval News at the Surface Navy Association (SNA 2021) Virtual Symposium on January 11, 2021 on if any of the future-built USCG Cutters such as the National Security Cutter (NSC) or Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC)...

The U.S. Navy has identified the two-person crew killed Friday when a training aircraft crashed in a small town outside Mobile, Alabama. In a news release Sunday, the Navy identified the victims as Navy Lt. Rhiannon Ross, 30, from Wixom, Michigan, and 24-year-old US Coast Guard Ensign Morgan Garrett of Weddington, North Carolina. Ross was an instructor pilot, the Navy statement said, while Garrett was identified as a student aviator. “Their spirit, friendship, and devotion to their country will not be forgotten,” the Navy statement said. Ross and Garrett took off in a Navy T-6B Texan II trainer aircraft from...

Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam confirms COVID-19 cases but details silenced by Pentagon US Army bases in Hawaii restricting non-essential visitors in wake of coronavirus pandemic By Mahealani Richardson | April 2, 2020 at 7:11 PM HST - Updated April 2 at 7:24 PM HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Leaders with Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam say there are COVID cases at the intallation, but the Pentagon says military operations cannot publicly release specific numbers to ‘protect operational security.’ “Are there any Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam service members that are sick with COVID, the answer is yes. Until recently we were providing that...

The U.S. Coast Guard offloaded more than 6,900 pounds of cocaine in San Diego that was seized from drug smugglers in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, officials said. Offloaded Wednesday, the cocaine, which is valued at more than $92 million, was seized from drug smuggling vessels between July and October by the crews of three Coast Guard cutters including the Alert, the Robert Ward and the Seneca off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America,...

On the evening of 15 October 1956 a Pan American Airlines Stratocruiser named Clipper Sovereign of the Skies lifted off from Honolulu, headed to San Francisco on a 2,000-mile flight. 24 passengers and seven crew were flying the final leg of their around-the-world flight, but still had 2,000 miles of open ocean to cross. 4 hours, 38 minutes into the nine-hour flight Capt. Richard Ogg climbed from 13,000 feet to 21,000. After leveling off, Clipper‘s Number 1 engine started spinning out of control. The cockpit suddenly jolts and the high-pitched noise of the runaway engine can be heard inside the...

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Officials vowed to find what sparked the inferno aboard the dive boat Conception that killed 34 people in waters off Southern California but vital evidence may have gone down with the ship or drifted out to sea.</p>

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A middle-of-the-night fire swept a boat carrying recreational scuba divers anchored near an island off the Southern California coast early Monday, leaving at least 25 dead and nine others missing. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr Matthew Kroll said Monday night that 25 people had died. Five of six crew members on the Conception escaped by jumping into an inflatable boat they steered to a nearby vessel. Rescuers initially recovered four bodies about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles just off Santa Cruz Island, and 16 others were pulled from the water later in the...

LOS ANGELES - The 75-foot dive boat Conception was considered one of the best of its kind in the region, and both it and its operator, Truth Aquatics Inc., were in compliance with U.S. Coast Guard regulations. That all changed Monday in the flash of a predawn fire near Santa Cruz Island, when the Conception sank in flames, taking with it more than 30 people who were below deck in bunk beds, apparently unable to get out.