‘No Higher Calling…Saving People,’ Says CG Officer of Rescue Missions

CAPE MAY – Two rescues by U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Michelle Foster were the turning point in her 12-year career, cementing her belief that what she does matters. One was successful and everyone was saved; in the other, eight people were saved, two died.
“A member of my family has been in every war since the American Revolution,” said the only female commanding officer of a station in District 5, which covers 5 million square nautical miles and geographically begins below New York and ends above South Carolina. “I’m a daughter of the Revolution.
“I wanted to be a veterinarian before Sept. 11,” she recalled. “Then after Sept. 11, I wanted to do something. I applied to all the (military) academies and really believe in the search and rescue (SAR) mission of the Coast Guard. There is no higher calling than saving people.”
Over her 12 years, Foster has been involved with over 2,100 search and rescues, saving or assisting more than 1,900 people. The turning point for her was a rescue she was involved with in 2011 when the Coast Guard received a call about 1 a.m. from a man on a sailboat from Newfoundland by himself and claimed he was near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
“He said the weather was foggy and he was having a hard time reading the markers,” Foster said. “I asked him which buoys he could see and he kept telling me he didn’t see any. It didn’t make any sense. He said he was tired, and I noticed his speech was a bit slurry. In talking with him, he said he was a diabetic and had not eaten for a few days.
“I asked him to pop his Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) which is like the black box on an airplane, but floats on top of the water,” she continued. “He was actually 400 miles offshore and was hallucinating. He was on the verge of going into diabetic shock in the middle of nowhere. The EPIRB is extremely accurate and we were able to find him and save him.”
Another rescue that sticks in her mind was one that happened in the Suffolk River, Va., where a tug boat operator called the Coast Guard after striking something in the water, although he couldn’t see anything.
Shortly thereafter, a 911 operator called the Coast Guard because they had received a call from an “hysterical woman who said she had swum to shore for about an hour and a half, and couldn’t find any of her friends. She and nine other college students had left a party after drinking. They thought they could take a boat out, and didn’t use any life jackets. It overturned; we were able to rescue eight students, but two didn’t make it,” she said.
Today’s technology with global-positioning satellites, high-tech computers as well as the caliber of Coast Guard members have come a long way since the service’s most successful small boat rescue in 1952, which is the story behind the recent Disney movie, “The Finest Hours.”
In the movie, two oil tankers break apart off the coast of Cape Cod during a nor’easter. One drifted close to the shoals off Chatham, Mass.; the captain and seven others in the bow section were lost.
Coast Guard cutters were busy trying to rescue the other tanker, so as darkness fell, the Coast Guard sent out a 36-foot wooden motorboat operated by four young crewmen to try to save the other half of the tanker. Visibility was poor, snow was horizontal and waves crested around 70 feet, smashing the compass and windshield.
With much luck, the rescue boat found the tanker and saved 32 men, despite having a capacity for only 12.
“The movie is pretty accurate,” Foster said, “but there have been a lot of changes in the guard since then.”
In the movie, one character says “the Coast Guard promises you’ll go out, but doesn’t say anything about coming back.” Foster said that’s totally changed.
“The Coast Guard pushes that we will do all we can to save a life. That’s a lot of responsibility, especially when most coxswains (the one in charge of the boat, navigating and steering) are mostly under 25 years of age. The guard is getting more and more selective and many of our members have college degrees now. It’s a totally different challenge to keep everyone motivated today than it was in the past,” she said.
Before any SAR operation is undertaken, a risk assessment reviews the experience, fitness and qualifications of the crew, environmental factors and complexity of the rescue. “We practice twice a week in all sorts of weather,” Foster said.
Typically the guard covers an area 50 miles out from the station, but Foster said if they are needed further, an assessment is done. “Technology today, like the EPIRB, tells us exactly where to search. The search is almost out of search and rescue because the devices we have today can really pinpoint a distress signal,” she said.
The F.V. Golden Nugget, for instance, was rescued in January after being hit by a rogue wave 88 miles east of Cape May. “They were taking on water and their bilge pumps couldn’t keep up,” Foster said.
Helicopters are often used today to help reach a distressed ship, get photos to help assess the situation and communicate with the fishing vehicle.
An 87-foot cutter ran alongside Golden Nugget all night as it safely ushered the vessel back to Lund’s dock. “We’re also there to watch for environmental pollution, such as diesel fuel spilling into the ocean,” Foster said.
Similar to what was depicted in the movie, camaraderie among the Coast Guard and community is something that Foster said she’s felt since coming to the Cape May station almost a year ago.
“This is the only place that when I go into Wawa for a coffee, people thank me for my service. The community support here is great,” she said. A Florida native, she’s also been based in Virginia and California.
“Sometimes things can be a little tenuous with the commercial fishermen,” she admitted, “because we are enforcing the regulations and that can be frustrating. I’ve done it; I know it’s not pleasant. But we got a thank you from the Golden Nugget which we didn’t expect; we were just doing our jobs, but it was nice.”
Foster plans to make a career of the Coast Guard with the support of husband Charles, a stay-at-home dad with 2-year-old son Charlie. Another child is due in September. “I couldn’t do this without the support of my husband,” she noted.
In the meantime, she and her crew make sure their six SAR vessels are well maintained.
“We have two 45-foot boats, a 24-foot and three 25-foot boats,” she said. “At the end of March, we’ll be swapping out the 25-foot boats for 29-foot boats. It’s a long way from the wooden motor boats used in the movie.”
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.