Tradewinds trainees head out to sea
The military exercise known as Tradewinds 2007 continued today, but while most of the multinational force trained in the heat and dust of the mainland, one contingent of participants headed out for the blue. News Five’s Kendra Griffith was aboard.
Kendra Griffith
“Out on the water today these coast guards will be practicing BECC’s, Basic, Engineering, Casualty Control Drills.”
PO3 Greg Belkin, U.S. Coast Guard
“Anything can happen once you are out on the water, whether it’s an engine failure, a steering failure, you may run into a submerged object that wasn’t on the chart. We train for those.”
First up were drills for fire, which could occur in the bilge, fuel tank, or engine.
Coast Guard #1
“Fire, fire, fire on the board engine.
PO3 Greg Belkin
“What’s the first thing you’re gonna do?”
Coast Guard #1
“Shout the alarm, you shout the alarm first, rest of the people move forward, the rest of the people move forward.”
Coast Guard #2
“The fire extinguisher.”
After turning off the engine that’s on fire, the seamen then try to get control of the blaze.
Coast Guard #1
“Somebody come and take this cover … [pretends to spray engine with extinguisher] … Fire’s under control coxswain.”
“Coxswain, the engineer just made his assessment, we cannot use this engine anymore, we’ve shut it down. This engine is out of service for now.”
Coast Guard #3
“At this time we’ll tilt up the engine and just run on one engine back to base.”
Emergency number two is…
PO3 Greg Belkin
“You’ve just lost steering, you have no steering capability.”
Coast Guard #4
“First thing first, the engineer check the hydraulics, we call back to base, try and stay with the engines. Try and clamp it with a vice grip, try and steer back to a safe haven also.”
Another situation would be if a crew or passenger fell off the boat.
PO3 Greg Belkin
“How far is he out from the boat guys?”
Coast Guard #5
“He’s two feet from the bow. One foot from the bow.”
Coast Guard #6
“He’s picking up him. He’s picking him up. … We got him, man on board.”
Coast Guard #1
“Man on board not breathing too well. [Fakes CPR]. C.P.R., he’s recovered. He’s well, get up.”
PO3 Greg Belkin
“Good job crew, good job.”
And while today was practice, some of these sailors have experienced real life emergencies.
Seaman Glenn Colebrook, Bahamas Coast Guard
“The man overboard.”
Kendra Griffith
“And it’s similar to what was done today?”
Seaman Glenn Colebrook
“Yes, basically. … In the Bahamas we do a lot of search and rescue, apprehension of illegal immigrants, drugs sometimes.”
Seaman Marlon Castillo, Belize National Coast Guard
“I have been in a situation where our control bar break and we had to reach base and we were way in Hunting Caye and we had to reach base that day, so we did manoeuvre it and make it to base.”
PO3 Greg Belkin
“The number one thing to always keep in mind whenever you are on a vessel or boat, whether its for working in operational or whether you are just out with your family, is making sure everyone’s on the same page and being safe, wearing the life jackets and practicing. Whether you are in the coast guard or not, everyone and families should always practice in case sometime unfortunate were to happen or whether there is a casualty and that’s what we’re here to train and practice.”
Forty-five coast guard personnel are taking part in the Tradewinds exercise. Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
Tradewinds 2007 ends on May eighteenth.
