Coast Guard always ready 
to keep country safe 

I can’t remember when the Coast Guard wasn’t part of my life. Growing up on Lake Erie, the beach was where we always hung out. While kids in the rest of the country were watching hokey beach blanket movies, we were experiencing the real thing. Except for the times when the Coast Guard ruined our fun by putting up their red flags to keep us out of the water. But in twenty years of seeing their boats patrol the coastline, never once did I have a close encounter with a Coast Guardsman. In fact, I never even met one.

So here I am, forty years later, living in an area that’s about as landlocked as it can get, and I just met my first Coastie. Mike Loos, a new neighbor, is a U.S. Coast Guard recruiter. 

Loos grew up in Clearwater, Florida and was always aware of the Coast Guard, just like I was. But he actually had close encounters with them. One time they stopped him for not having proper gear on his boat and another time they saved his life.

“When I was in middle school a friend and I were out in a johnboat. The engine stalled and we were stuck out in the ocean. My mother was expecting us home and started to worry, so she called the Coast Guard and they came looking for us.” But the Coast Guard is about much more than monitoring how much fun teenagers have at the beach. 

“The Coast Guard is the nation’s oldest seafaring service. When it started in 1790, its only function was to prevent bootleggers from bringing whiskey into the United States,” Loos said. “Now they work with search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, environmental protection and homeland security.”

Before becoming a recruiter, Loos worked as a Marine Science Technician. Though his division did significant work with disasters like oil spills, he says now the majority of efforts of all divisions go towards homeland security. “Before 9/11waterfront security had no standards. People didn’t realize the impact of what could happen if the dangerous chemicals traded through a port ended up in the wrong hands. City planners came up with scenarios about what might happen and tightened up maritime security. No mission in the Coast Guard is more important than the other, but when it comes to Homeland Security all Coast Guard members are trained to live up to our motto "Semper Paratus”(always ready.)

Loos and I both felt our lives were a bit unique growing up on the water, but today, over 53 per cent of our population lives in the 673 coastal counties that form our borders. And Homeland Security affects all of us no matter where we live.

In the spirit of this patriotic weekend, I salute the Coast Guard for being always ready to do whatever it takes to keep our country safe. 

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