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- Notes:
- Kent Fisher was born on July 1, 1946 in Lansing, Michigan. He enlisted in the Coast Guard in the summer of 1968 and was called up for service in December 1968. He received his basic training at Cape May, New Jersey then received further training at Coast Guard Station Emerald Isle, North Carolina. From Emerald Isle he went to Governors Island, New York, where he attended Yeoman School. He returned to Emerald Isle and worked on the Coast Guard cutter, USCGC Verbena. He was promoted to the rank of petty officer second class and received orders to join the USCGC Munro. He was selected for Officer Candidate School, graduated with the rank of ensign, and was then promoted to lieutenant. He joined the USCGC Tamaroa in January 1974 and served aboard the ship until he was reassigned to the Coast Guard Atlantic Area Rescue Coordination Center, where he helped plan the search and rescue operations for the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. He was then given command of Coast Guard Station Cape May, New Jersey and from there was transferred to the 9th District Commander's Office in Cleveland, Ohio. He also served at Coast Guard Station Muskegon, Michigan, and ended his career at Governors Island, New York, as the Chief of News & Photos. He retired from the Coast Guard on May 1, 1990 after 22 years of service and with the rank of lieutenant commander.
- Date Created:
- 2016-06-13T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Gord Youngquist served in the United States Coast Guard from 1977 to 1987. During this period Gord served in a wide variety of positions and locations from Cortez Florida, Sarasota Florida, Saint Petersburg Florida, as well as aboard an ice breaker that did voyages in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. In this interview, Gord recounts his time in all of these location, particularly Saint Petersburg Florida, where he helped on both the Blackthorn as well as the Sunshine Bridge disasters. Gord also accounts the repercussions his service has had on him as well as his struggle living with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.)
- Date Created:
- 2011-11-02T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Mark Northrup was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1957. He graduated high school in 1975 and attended St. Olaf College in Minnesota before opting to enlist into the Coast Guard for its Officer Candidate School. Northrup attended the OCS program in Yorktown, Virginia, before being commissioned in March of 1981. For his first assignment, he was sent to Duluth, Minnesota, to serve on an icebreaking buoy tender. Northrup also served tours in Okinawa, Japan, as a commanding officer of a long range navigation station, a pollution officer and Vessel Traffic Systems Watch Officer out of Puget Sound in Washington, and as an executive officer on a buoy tender out of Ketchikan, Alaska, where he bacame captain of his ship. Northrup left the service in 1994 and began a career in manufacturing, predominantly automotive, and electronics manufacturing.
- Date Created:
- 2019-02-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Wendall Smits was born in South Holland, Illinois in 1936. After graduating high school, a friend convinced him to join the Coast Guard Reserve at the age of 17. He completed two weeks of boot camp in 1955 at Cape May, New Jersey and became an engineman for the Coast Guard aboard various ships. He then became a chief engineman and, later, a lieutenant with a unit in Chicago before transferring to a Coast Guard unit in Gary, Indiana. After moving to Cleveland, Ohio, he was promoted to the position of warrant officer, and then to a Lieutenant Junior Grade. Smits primarily worked for port security at the various bases bases he was stationed at and also trained recruits for his Coast Guard units as a training officer. He was later awarded the Coast Guard Achievement Medal for his work rewriting engineering programs and engineering training manuals for the entire 9th district in Gary, Indiana.
- Date Created:
- 2017-07-06T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)