Coast Guard Takes Pride, Delight in Saving Lives

Two men and a poodle were recently found floating on a small raft after their 38-foot fishing boat, Pioneer II, capsized four miles north of Santa Barbara.

“When we arrived on the scene, the men were smiling,” said Lt. Jim Sommer, 27, an officer with the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station headquartered at Los Angeles International Airport.

“You can’t put a price on that when you see the expression on their faces. Saving lives is such an important and satisfying part of our jobs.”

Sommer, who has served with the Coast Guard for three years, is one of 38,000 men and women who routinely risk their lives to rescue people.

Last year, the 11th Coast Guard District, headquartered in Long Beach, which oversees 22 guard units in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah, responded to 1,739 search and rescue cases, saving 105 lives and assisting 4,310 people.

The smallest of the five armed services, the Coast Guard was established in 1790 as the Revenue Cutter Service, a division of the Treasury Department that enforced customs laws discouraging smuggling on the high seas during the war with Great Britain.

In 1915, the Revenue Cutter Service was combined with the Life-Saving Service, an organization that manned small lifeboats that responded to shipwrecks, to form the U.S. Coast Guard.

It is now a division of the Department of Transportation. Besides conducting search-and-rescue missions, the Coast Guard remains responsible for defending the first 200 miles of the coastline, serves as the maritime law enforcement agency and works to protect the marine environment by investigating oil spills and ensuring the cleanup by responsible parties.

Capt. Marty Dillian, 43, commanding officer of the Coast Guard air station in Los Angeles, helped evacuate people caught in a hurricane in 1969.

“We had to fly a helicopter into the hurricane,” said Dillian, who has been with the Coast Guard for 26 years. “It was another day’s job. Nothing any more unusual. It was more dangerous but every day provides the same rewards.”

“The rewards for saving lives are special,” Dillian said. “I wish I could communicate with teen-agers all over the country what a rewarding life style the military service provides. I am happier with my decision (to join the Coast Guard) now than at any other time.”

But no matter how rewarding the job may be, the pain of recovering casualties in many disasters can take its toll of even the most seasoned officers.

“The only time I personally felt very badly about a rescue mission was when I had to recover the body of a teen-age girl in 1973, who intentionally drowned herself,” Dillian said. “She had everything to live for. It was enough to upset anybody.”