A Day in the Life of the Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk

[Music] [Music] every hour every day around the clock and around the world the united states coast guard is like its motto semper paratus always ready 13 of the ships patrolling america's shores are 270 foot medium endurance cutters one of those cutters is the mohawk [Music] the mission of the mohawk is primarily search and rescue and law enforcement our main objective is to patrol an area look for vessels to board and to get on board those vessels when we deploy what we generally do is we go to a specific area that we've been assigned and we'll patrol in conjunction with other coast guard units or sometimes we'll be independent in the case where we're patrolling looking for other vessels to board we'll be looking for compliance to marine requirements marine safety requirements also inspecting the vessel to make sure that they don't have any contraband on board miss piccaio stuff we don't need to uh get on the other quarter just cheating a little bit closer i don't want to steal his wind an unidentified sailboat has been spotted which apparently has no radio the boat is assumed to be haitian and the people on board are assumed to speak french [Music] the captain decides to send a law enforcement team to investigate the sailboat the mohawk is ready for law enforcement phase one and the law enforcement team also called the boarding team reports to the bridge to be briefed by the captain there are four people on deck there's nobody else visible you don't see little heads popping out of the cabin so i don't think they i don't think they have a bunch of things on board but we don't know what nationality is uh we don't even know if it speaks english they don't have a radio on board you can't see any antennas or anything at least we can't establish communications did anybody offer up on french yeah seaman mckinley just came up and she uh apparently has four years of high school friends so try that out uh but i think that's the best we're going to be able to do today but if you get over there and you can't establish communications or they're belligerent or just go back [Music] the mohawk is patrolling in international waters and is governed by international maritime laws in accordance with maritime laws the coast guard may board at will any united states flag vessel or any unstated vessel at any time otherwise permission must be granted by the master of the vessel or acquired through diplomatic channels from the vessel's home country as the mohawk keeps a safe distance the leaders of the boarding team proceed act to begin preparations of the boarding process getting ready to go on this morning we'll do the boarding we'll go over and i'm not sure what uh what flag vessel it is what flag vessel is it man we don't know there's no markings on it at this time that means it's a unstated vessel which gives us permission to board it i can get some of this not out here i don't think so looks like they're just out for a daily sale and they're headed south which is a good thing for them it's not real not a big indicator that's a drug smoker anyways they were asking for a french speaker earlier so i speak about as much french as parliament we're waiting for the rest of our weapons issued and to do our brief over we haven't had a problem in the past with people speaking spanish because in america it's really fluent for people to speak spanish i took four years of french in high school and hopefully i'll be able to help a little bit it's been a couple years since i've i've done it but you know hopefully i'll know enough in order to get some questions answered all right shooters go ahead and pull your weapons out of your holsters keeping them pointed over the side make sure the decocking levers are in the down and on position your fingers outside the trigger guard place 15 round magazine in the weapon release your slides forward place your safety decock levers in the up and off position doesn't appear uh they don't have any uh antennas on board we can't get radio comms with them what the game plan is we see four people on board it doesn't appear to be uh transporting migrants they'll have people sticking their heads out they can see the four people on board uh our game plan we got mckinley with us in case they're speaking french she took four years of in high school i feel pretty confident first one is am i speaking to the master of the vessel how do you say that well you have to get around it um i've only taken french for a couple years so i'll probably ask him who's the man of the ship uh the head the head person dude it's pretty simple what is your date of birth in citizenship in the citizenship [Music] good morning [Music] the size of the boarding team is determined by several factors the overall assessed risk of boarding the vessel the vessel's size and the current sea conditions boardings are conducted from a small motorboat called an rhi or rigid hull inflatable the rhi's inflatable rubber sides prevent damage to other boats during the boarding process [Music] this is a bahamian vessel originally we thought it was was haitian by its uh its design and uh typically the haitian vessels have uh like tree trunks and limbs that they use for for their mast and spars and that's what this guy has but he's bahamian and he's on his way from port-au-pay haiti to nassau and he's supposed to have a bunch of vegetables on board running them up to the bahamas didn't have any communications with them when we first came up on them which is typical they don't have many electronics on board these and so we sent a boarding team over to establish a communications from the boat and got our information and then asked him for consensual and gave us permission to come aboard so this is fairly routine [Music] the mohawk is the last of the coast guard's 13 famous cutter class ships a medium endurance cutter the mohawk measures 270 feet from stem to stern within the ship there are six levels of operational space which house and support a crew of 100 men and women 14 officers and 86 enlisted it's powered by two 4 000 horsepower diesel engines and it has a top speed of 19.5 knots and a maximum range of 9900 miles the mohawk's primary missions are law enforcement defense operations and search and rescue it's armed with one mk 75 millimeter gun and two 50 caliber machine guns its flight deck is capable of landing several types of helicopters the ship is equipped with two small boats used in law enforcement and rescue operations [Music] a day aboard the mohawk doesn't really have a beginning or an end since the ship is operational around the clock a crew is always on duty manning the bridge on watch for other ships or charting the ship's route [Music] at night the ship is quiet but for the constant hum of the engine most of the ship's enlisted personnel raids e5 and below sleep in tight quarters stacked three highly at 6 30 a.m revelry comes too soon for most [Music] the crew is ethnically diverse and come to the coast guard from all parts of the united states about 10 of them are women who sleep in separate quarters [Music] there's only two showers there's not much left to show very much staying here for now [Music] except for the segregation by sex living arrangements are separated by rank and by department the ship's broken down into into four departments and there's there's two or three divisions within each department the four departments are engineering department operations department the support department and the deck department each has their own assigned spaces on board the ship their own gear that they have to maintain their own jobs and functions on board the ship report engineers like president county foreign operations department of president county horse sir well thanks department council support department all present councils [Music] companies as in all military organizations the coast guard observes a strict chain of command at the bottom is the ship's crew the enlisted personnel who report to the chief petty officers who report to the division officers who report to the executive officer who reports to the commanding officer who regardless of rank is always addressed as captain okay we're uh we're in the vicinity of uh crooked island bahamas which is uh right near mira porvos north of the windward pass again we're still supposed to be over in the vicinity of barrancan by the second to pick up our hilo gun shoot on the third and then uh nav stay rosy road on the fourth probably uh sometime tomorrow if the weather's cooperating uh we may have a little cookout and we may also find a fishing spot if we can if we can find a nice convenient shallow spot to get by so we'll let you know how that works out okay all right so department heads take charge okay game plan for this today uh as the eo brief we'll be doing a general emergency drill this afternoon tomorrow morning field day and mi we need to get shipped back up to uh snuff so turn two and make sure things are cleaned up we didn't clean for basically two months so we need to make sure that we get all this stuff and get it back to where it's supposed to be saturday at 1900 email will go out uh special note on this it's expensive in march at times six dollars a minute we're not trying to say you can't send an email we don't want your mom to send we just want to try to conserve and consolidate emails any other questions about email all right other thing going on saturday is uh pyro training pyro training for all the new people okay those who haven't sailed with us before cairo training tomorrow night and after quarters tomorrow will be crazy hat day we're gonna do it after quarters tomorrow the efficient operation of the mohawk depends on specialization and separation of duties as well as the ability to function cohesively as a unit and the mohawk is one of 237 ships among 1500 coast guard units operating throughout the united states smallest of america's five armed services the coast guard is the primary federal agency with maritime authority for the united states the coast guard is divided into nine districts each with its area of responsibility the mohawk is attached to the seventh district headquartered in miami florida from its home base in key west florida the mohawk is responsible for patrolling the waters of southern florida the bahamas and the caribbean sea about 750 000 square miles in area the caribbean sea is a major trade route for latin american countries the windward passage between cuba and haiti is the primary shipping route between the u.s and the panama canal although the great majority of vessels passing through this area are legitimate commercial ships fishing boats and pleasure craft these waters also serve as the principal route for drugs and illegal migrants into the u.s accordingly the u.s coast guard has a crucial interest in patrolling this area [Music] the coordination of the patrol as well as the bearing and speed of the ship is directed by the bridge i'm going to continue left steady on one four zero one four zero homes in all ahead six side the bridge is commanded by the od the officer of the deck under the direct orders of the commanding officer the od usually a junior officer is responsible for keeping the ship on its immediate course and relays orders to the helmsman an enlisted man or woman who physically drives the ship directly behind the bridge and working in close conjunction with the bridge is the combat information center or cic cic is like a clearing house of intelligence information is gathered here from the ship's sensors such as radar and radio and then disseminated to the bridge and other departments cic is constantly monitoring the ship's position and like the bridge constantly looking for targets ships to avoid ships to board and aircraft that may be transporting contraband in fact looking for targets is the primary objective of the mohawk november 6-1-1 bravo the e-loan numbers are november 6-1-1 bravo in spite of the mohawk's high-tech electronics still the most effective lookout device tends to be the human eye aided by binoculars basically we use binoculars to uh scan the horizon make sure that you know if we see a contact we report it what it looks like where it's going what direction it's going the worst thing you can have is well a contact that has a cbdr which is constant bearing decreasing range which means that we may it's possible uh something that we could hit so we want to make sure that we avoid those type of things we scan the water to make sure that there aren't any cubans or you know haitians we've had problems with migrants in southern florida we want to make sure that they're not in the water we'll step out on the side here on the bridge wing and make sure that nobody on our ship fell over great scene on amanda man over our side of the board [Music] although a training exercise the mohawk must respond as if the emergency were real the od immediately changes the ship's course each department takes account of their personnel to determine who's missing a rescue craft is immediately prepared for launch other crew members who don't have an active role in the rescue help to point out the location of the person in the water of course speed is of paramount importance the time it takes to rescue could mean life or death [Music] so it was pretty slow we did it kind of as a surprise and kind of through it up a little bit because people it was a little slow and they didn't get excited but they need to get excited and i think after they see their score on this they're not they're gonna want to get excited and want to be a little bit more prepared for the next time we do this it could be them in the water [Music] the mohawk's main deck one level below the flight deck spans from stem to stern and houses many of the ship's offices and workshops the main deck is also the location of the mess deck and galleys so [Music] [Applause] potatoes and we're going to have filet mignon crab legs of course brownies are for lunch right and asparagus that's those are two vegetables always just do oysters when you have 100 people waiting on food you got to have it done as fast as possible so you squish them down like so it kind of um makes them a little they cook a little faster squish it down a little bit take the cheese special seasoning season them down real good especially the tops because you sit on one right on top of the other like so and then i'll put another layer on top of the bottom to be seasoned also while at sea the galley is consistently the busiest area of the ship the galley is operational from 5 a.m to 3 a.m the next morning 22 hours every day seven days a week five cooks prepare four meals a day in addition to snacks in a perpetual effort to keep a hungry crew satisfied and nourished once a week the crew is treated to a special meal usually consisting of steak and seafood we want to keep the ship clean because that's for health reasons i mean it's not just to get the guys to do work we need to keep the place clean so that we don't catch roaches and we get people sick from taking in molds and funguses that grow when you have a lot of moisture we're having a material inspection today which isn't just cleanliness as far as the inspection goes we're actually going to go around and look at cleanliness but we're going to look for defects in safety items we're going to check our fire extinguishers make sure they've been checked and all the safety equipment around the check as well as the cleanliness of it we're going to head up forward to ops birthing and first class birthing chief petty officer hans bartnick is one of eight chief petty officers aboard the mohawk among other duties chief bartnik is the chief master at arms and is responsible for the ship's sanitation and security the chiefs as they are called are enlisted men and women with a rank of e7 and above they report directly to the officers and supervise the lower enlisted ranks chief am i supposed to do the wardrobe nakeds maggots no it's not yours one thing the ceo did point out today those transformers that are up there above the ladder see there's a bunch of stuff growing on top of them growing well it's black sitting above the ladder come here i'll show you the only thing is don't use uh oh back through you can see these right above your head the only thing is don't use water of course use water on them in your toast and then i have to find it and i have to find me a new hard worker everybody decent in here come on in this is uh what we call operations birthing again as you'll find the ship is a segment and everything we do is kind of segmented by departments and this is operations birthing we try to keep people with that do the same job and have the same work schedules together so that there's an inner cooperation on the ship so all the operations people sleep in here that is e5 and below lombard lombard out there do you run off what's up under the racks babe under them under them i didn't even need a flashlight but under that one there's an ear plug there's no it it hadn't been swept under there yeah they did the usual they went around all the racks and stuff and all right i'll get under there and see this oh uh-huh i didn't get all that yep it works but it's dirty oh they can get all the horizontals in here all right let me go make a pipe i'll be right back [Music] i don't want my wife to see this she'll think i actually do laundry each group of people each department has a designated day on saturdays and sundays it's all hands but it's up to the old person to make sure their laundry gets into the dryer in time to keep keep the wheels turning keep progress going a dryer takes um 50 minutes and a washer takes about 25 minutes so sometimes it'll get backed up i just took the captain stuff out of the dryer because it was because it was done so he was holding up progress a little bit see i got the first attendant okay what i just did is uh basically i'm not pleased with the way this place looks there's a lot of dust that should have been taken care of that didn't get taken care of so real soon here we're going to hear a pipe that says all residents of operations birthing lady the same and i'm going to have all residents of ops birthing not actually on watch later the same and what i'm going to have them do is uh basically start from the beginning start from the top and work their way down until it's done until it's clean looks pretty clean they did a good job in here and this is where i'd want it to be clean two showers you have two toilets a urinal and two sinks for how many guys we got in here 21 in here too 21 man birthing in here as well so again you got 21 guys sharing two sinks two showers and two toilets hey fish what's up uh they just they didn't get the dust man they didn't wipe anything down and they didn't get under the rack so i just told them wipe down the dust start at the top work their way down okay i got enough of them so all right they're working it i think he had quite a few but this is operations locker room this is where they have their stand-up lockers as you can tell you have to go across the main passage to actually get here but again you got 21 lockers for 21 guys they got a place to put their hang up stuff now the new mill is being served on the message for first class petty officers and launch watch release to the head of the line what's up first are you doing a medium rare medium rare coming right up and uh that's good okay asparagus that's it very well done i'll miss mine rare's [Music] [Music] as with all military organizations there are three distinct societies aboard the mohawk enlisted personnel chief petty officers and officers each society has separate living accommodations as well as separate dining rooms enlisted ranks he informally entrey's cafeteria style on the main mascot [Music] higher up the chain of command chief petty officers eat on plates instead of trays the chiefs have their own dining room and are served by lower ranking enlisted personnel the food is still the same but the service and atmosphere are somewhat better as the old saying goes rank has its privileges at the top of the command officers eat in a formal setting tablecloth silverware individual play settings yeah their meals are served one course at a time just like a fancy restaurant but the food is still the same food that is served to enlisted and chief petty officers breakfast lunch or dinner every rank on board eats the same food as the others [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] now this is a drill this is a drill general quarters general quarters all hands manual battle stations set material conditions zebra throughout the ship and make reports to dc central [Music] as soon as you get your flash gear on get on your phones combat phone check drills are a routine occurrence aboard the mohawk since the mohawk is alone at sea every crew member must be able to react quickly and efficiently to emergencies of all sorts whether it be fire flooding or combat all right fire control surface and air man ready car combat cic of all the drills conducted aboard the mohawk general quarters is the most serious also known as battle stations general quarters is the ship's highest state of readiness throughout the ship the crew gets ready for combat helmets and fire protection are put on while every battle station is manned lookouts scan the horizon for other ships as the mohawk prepares to test its defensive weapons loaded the mohawk is equipped with a defensive device called sarba which scatters chaff into the air in the event of a missile attack the chaff is designed to divert the missile away from the ship [Music] 50 caliber machine guns mounted on each side of the mohawk are used in combat and law enforcement activities [Music] it's been a busy day we got a boarding in today we did our uh starbuck and our 50 caliber gun shoot tomorrow we get our hilo uh that'll be coming out to us about 8 30 in the morning and we'll be staying in around mona island uh mona pass which is that area of water between puerto rico and the dominican republic that'll put us in here in the last couple hours to compile it and he's gonna do a boarding tonight do we have uh the waypoints in uh gps i haven't heard it in gps yes i just put it down so they'll put it into gps okay so we pick up our helo there tomorrow and then we're out here yes sir on the second uh they only they didn't give us an assignment for the first because we're doing our own thing uh the second just to remain here and then the third fourth the fifth would come over to area just south puerto rico the hilo uh is going to go up probably about twice a day for a two-hour search and what they'll be looking for is small targets either migrants or go fast activity vessels that we might be interested in going to look at shipboard helicopter landings and takeoffs are among the most dangerous routine operations aboard the mohawk the possibility of a hilo crash and fire is always a predominant concern and extensive safety measures are taken to limit the risks of an accident fire and rescue teams prepare for the worst possible scenario flight crew members wear color-coded gear that identify their particular responsibilities the flight deck is combed for debris that could become airborne when subjected to the tremendous force created by the helicopter props a life boat is put on the rail in case of a water rescue [Music] and finally the talon grid is uncovered this is what we call a talon grid or honeycomb this here is used for helo ops it's centered pretty much in the center of our flight deck when the helo comes down to land there's an arm that comes underneath the helo and actually grabs on to these honeycombs or these these circles here which which pretty much secures the healer to the deck delta two five is a shark knight one three i have numbers when you're ready to copy over all right roger number's as follows course zero seven five magnetic speed nine knots barometer three zero decimal two two request to repeat back altimeter over yeah stations man and ready light decks man and ready free landing checks are complete press permission for talon landing and passenger and departation [Music] for tailwind clear to land with powell on landing delta two five shark 913 you are clear for talon landing passenger debarkation take signals from lso once the captain is given permission for the helo to land the lso or landing signal officer directs the helo onto the deck [Music] all right taiwan's engaged next status light right light station phone deck status lights well the kilo has radio communications with a bridge and i have communications with the bridge through sound power phone talker and he stands behind me when we're landing the kilo and we've got certain symbols to let me know what i expect for the helo to be doing and from his symbols i know how to direct the helo onto the flight deck [Applause] after a brief stop on the mohawk the hilo departs on its search mission to look for targets to board [Music] motor vessel petromaya motor vessel petromaya this is u.s coast guard vessel u.s coast guard vessel on channel 1616 over [Music] sailing vessel sailing vessel on a northwesterly heading this u.s coast guard vessel u.s coast guard vessel two miles off your port quarter on channel 1-6 over this this vessel was located by one of our search aircraft we have a helo and a fixed wing that's up doing searches in this area and reporting back to us what they're finding and basically what they they pass what's called an alpha report which is a basic description of vessel vessel name length uh antenna configuration all colors things like that that we can plug into our database and run see if we have any oe interest in that content [Music] once we get within range i'll hail the vessel ask them what's called right of approach questions roger captain including yourself how many persons are on board your vessel and what are their citizenships over [Music] roger captain uh with your permission we would like to send a boarding team over to conduct a routine at sea inspection over ordering team mohawk the personnel are in the cockpit which is in the aft part of the vessel [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so our boarding team's on board and they do the initial safety inspection they'll just go through take a look at spaces make sure everything looks the way we expect to see it [Music] our small boat stays off the opposite quarter that we do so we're off to port porter throughout the starboard quarter and they're also keeping an eye on the team the boarding officer is is going through the paperwork making sure that the story that the master has told us as far as where he's been where he's going matches what he has on his charts and his logs i went through his paperwork very neat and organized they also get the vessels documentation make sure the master's license is current they're they're going through and using their ion pads to make sweeps through the ship they'll report back to us as they get information as they complete the ion scan tests for a number of different drugs opiates barbiturates if they do find anything out of the nor ordinary if they come across some sort of contraband or clues that could lead to contraband they'll let us know [Music] [Music] okay all right good job guys especially tony and uh yeah you guys are back up all the way pass to the left one six zero right stand runner eye is right 20 degrees right full eye stop poor stop by i'll add two i'll head to uh right 30 degrees island here is uh navasa island it's uh to the west of the southern claw of haiti it's actually a u.s possession it's approximately maybe 20 miles off the coast of haiti and we're just basically going to get on the southwest side of it and it'll lead there and have a cookout mark 1-1-2 securely anchored the mohawk settles in for a leisurely afternoon in the sun but even at rest the mohawk has work to do we've anchored 400 yards off of nevassa island and we've noted a couple of boats they look like haitian sailing boats station fishing boats on the vasa island there so they're they're within they're within u.s waters and also it looks like they they're on they've been on the island also so uh we'll we'll uh examine what what they're doing uh in u.s waters since we have jurisdiction over them uh and then uh then we'll do a flight deck cookout this afternoon as well as monitor any kind of traffic that comes up south through the caribbean to through the the windward pass a united states possession nevassa island is kept as a bird sanctuary there are no human inhabitants on the island after weeks at sea land is certainly a sight to behold meanwhile the haitian fishermen spotted off the island became curious about the mohawk before a boarding team could be assembled to investigate the haitians the haitians sailed over to investigate the mohawk where are you from are you staying on this every night yeah yeah yeah what's the purpose what are you doing here [Music] give us a bucket this one [Music] leaves to fill the water bucket the rest of the crew tend to more serious matters you just bought this nah i caught it uh a couple of three weeks ago what are you going to use what's the sport cutting cutting what do you think you'll catch with it oh depends what's up it might be some see what they got on that boat yeah they got a squirrel fish there's some big stuff out there too last time i was here in 94 catching small tuna barracuda [Music] maybe i'll get lucky again ensign muse returns with the water for the haitians [Music] ready can you catch it ready there you go we do have a a great crew on board here and the crew is in fact the motor that runs the ship they're the ones that that from stem the stern are in fact making the ship go what we try to do to even out the load for the crew is to have opportunities at times where we we may break off and have a barbecue [Music] the officers prepare this meal for the crew the captain has authorized civilian clothes and specified that everyone wear crazy hats for the occasion [Music] officers and enlisted alike enjoy a once a week break from their daily routines and take advantage of the precious time off [Music] i think we all enjoy what we're doing if we were out here trying to get rich then we wouldn't be here we wouldn't be in these jobs and it's more than that it's it's the type of work that we do it's a very rewarding type of work it's exciting you get to see a lot when i came into the coast guard my perspective was tremendously broad some people come into the coast guard just to figure out what they want to do and this is a great opportunity it's the type of thing that you feel a great reward being involved [Music] [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Extreme Mysteries

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Keywords: coast guard, coast guard cutter mohawk, cutter mohawk, coast guard boats, coast guard boats in action, coast guard boot camp, coast guard submarine, coast guard alaska, coast guard song, coast guard rescue, coast guard training, coast guard florida, coast guard rescue swimmer, coast guard msrt, coast guard special forces, coast guard academy, coast guard jumps on submarine, coast guard helicopter, coast guard documentary, coast guard cutter mohawk documentary, documentary

Id: yTsUlTxxz4s

Length: 50min 5sec (3005 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 25 2022