NJROTC's Trip to Owensboro Coast Guard Station

Fri, 10/09/2015 - 4:42pm — Diane Dyer

On the morning of October 5, 2015, thirty cadets in the Butler County High School NJROTC unit went to the Owensboro Coast Guard Station where we went on a two hour boat tour of the USCG (United States Coast Guard) Cutter Obion.

The cutter gets its name from the Obion River as each Coast Guard vessel is named after a river. This tour included many different opportunities. This included being shown how to operate a buoy crane by Seaman Hiere. We then participated in a 5 man firefighting drill with a live fire hose; this drill was led by petty officer Johnston who has been in the service for 7 years. The last part of the tour included going on a coast guard rescue boat and participated in a man overboard drill, this drill was led by petty officer Matthews who has been in the service for 10 years.

Cadets Emily Coy and Kinsie Dowell participating in a firefighting drill

This is the first trip of this kind for the unit and we feel very lucky to have gotten the opportunity to go on such a trip and would like to thank Senior Chief Josh Goldman for letting us come take a tour of his vessel. We would also like to thank Major Redmond for taking us on this trip as well Kelly Redmond and Jeff Jennings for helping chaperone. “It was a great time; it was cool to learn more about what the Coast Guard does.”-Cadet Chief Ryan Hamilton. Everyone had a goodtime and we look forward to our next visit.

Cadets Yolanda Rafeal-Vargas, Ryan Hamilton, Wyatt Southerland, Terrance Beatty, and Dallas Miller