{"id":81085,"date":"2018-08-09T11:11:11","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T15:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=81085"},"modified":"2018-08-09T11:57:47","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T15:57:47","slug":"one-of-the-greatest-coast-guard-rescues-to-be-celebrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=81085","title":{"rendered":"One of the greatest Coast Guard rescues to be celebrated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Coast<\/p>\n

The Navy Times<\/a> reports that, beginning Aug. 13, the historical association is planning five days of events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Mirlo rescue \u2014 one of the most daring in Coast Guard history. <\/p>\n

Mirlo, a British tanker loaded with gasoline was torpedoed seven miles off the shore from Chicamacomico, North Carolina. The badly needed fuel was headed for England in support of it\u2019s forces in Europe during WW-1.<\/p>\n

The six-man U.S. Coast Guard lifesaving crew in Rodanthe led by Capt. John Allen Midgette Jr. pulled the surf boat from its shed to begin what would be a seven-hour rescue.<\/p>\n

“We call that boat the seventh hero,” said Ralph Buxton, a board member with the Chicamacomico Historical Association, pointing to the 26-foot wooden vessel that still sits at the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station. “It performed perfectly that day.”<\/p>\n

Beginning Aug. 13, the historical association is planning five days of events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Mirlo rescue \u2014 one of the most daring in Coast Guard history.<\/p>\n

In earlier years, the crew had to row to foundering ships. But on that day in 1918, they turned to a boat with the latest 12-horsepower motor, Buxton said.<\/p>\n

“That made a huge difference,” he said. “The motorized surf boats were state-of-the-art technology then.”<\/p>\n

\"surf<\/p>\n

The crew launched it into 15-foot waves coming one set after another. It took four tries to get past the massive breakers.<\/p>\n

“That was like a semitruck coming at you at 30 miles an hour and another one coming just eight seconds after that,” said Carl Smith, retired Coast Guard officer and a board member of the historical association.<\/p>\n

The crew motored toward the tanker, now split in two from multiple explosions. The water was on fire with burning fuel. Midgette and his men maneuvered through flames as the heat charred the paint on the boat and singed the men’s hair.<\/p>\n

One lifeboat and the captain’s gig were launched with several tanker crew members aboard. A second lifeboat overturned, leaving men hanging on in the burning waters.<\/p>\n

Midgette first brought those men aboard his boat and then helped bring the other boats closer to shore. The surf boat safely unloaded its cargo of survivors, then made three more trips to get the others in the boats beyond the breakers. The crew rescued 42 of 51 aboard the Mirlo.<\/p>\n

Midgette later recorded in the log, “Crew very tired.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Always Prepared- Semper Paratus is the official motto of the US Coast Guard. The unofficial motto is, “You have to go out, but you don\u2019t have to come back.” It\u2019s as true today as it was in 1918.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Navy Times reports that, beginning Aug. 13, the historical association is planning five days of … One of the greatest Coast Guard rescues to be celebrated<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195,286],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coast-guard","category-search-and-rescue-navy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}