The Miami News from Miami, Florida • 60

iiioTnnu IUI I mWL-M WW iiwwwweiWi! I- lllvJIUIl 1 i --f X' "TlwWWWIMWMWIWMIIIg111111111'1" Jin. i i imiimmh I ifekm v' 1 1 y4 7r VV a i 1 I y.i' v. vv. i i i 'l i 1 1 'ft i I I INSIDE LIGHTHOUSE at Fowey Rock, Coast Guardsman Roger Burmeister performs maintenance duty. Each bulb produces 1,000 toatis, and bank of prisms intensifies the light to 80,000 candle-power.

Ships as far away as 16 miles are guided by the friendly beam. FOWEY ROCK Lighthouse rises 110 feet over shallow reef, was constructed in 1878. Three-man crew runs it, but in hurricanes automatic is turned on. roast To The Most OS The Const HELICOPTER from Dinner Key base undergoes practice rescue operation in Biscayne Bay: when the "lost" fisherman is found, often he and his seagoing girl friend wish the Coast Guard itself would get lost. sr 7 i V.J!,; formation to offer.

Her husband sometimes fishes in Jewfish Creek but on the other hand, he also fishes at Baker's Haul-over. She thinks his boat is white but isn't quite sure about that. The rescue mission goes off on what sounds like a wild goose chase, not even sure if the goose is lost. The fisherman is usually found, of course. On more than one occasion, after Coast Guard helicopters have been in the air for several expensive hours, the husband has been found cczily tied up to a dock with a feminine crew of one and the last thing in the world he wants Is rescue.

Rescue work covers happenings from the tragic and melodramatic to the comic and ridiculous. From the infamous instance of the Bluebelle and the relentless but fruitless search for the Marine Sulphur Queen (500 air hours the first week alone), to towing in a 30-foot sailboat taken out by a man who bought it and thought he could "guide" it all by himself with only a sailing manual to show him the way. One who will no doubt pay homage to the Coast Guard on its birthday is an F-104 pilot. He was forced to bail out of his plane over Gulf waters. Worse still, he became entangled in his chute and had to cut loose from that, plus most of his life-saving equipment.

Thirty-nine hours and 55 minutes later, at 2 o'clock in the morning, the Coast Guard picked him up. They are proud of that rescue. IN TTTE MIAMI AREA, toasts to the Coast Guard, celebrating its 175th birthday Wednesday, should be heartier than in practically any other spot on our sea or coastalways. The Coast Guard and its good right arm, the civilian Auxiliary, operate the world's busiest air-sea rescue schedule from the base at Dinner Key and their small boat-rescue station at Miami Beach tops all others for its kind of work. The Seventh Coast Guard District, with headquarters here, is a geographical area South Carolina, Georgia, Florida east of the Appalachicola River, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Caribbean Sea and parts of the Canal Zone, under command of Rear Adm.

Louis M. Thayer. It covers more than 14,500 miles of tidal coastline. The Dinner Key base has been in service over 35 years. In September, headquarters will occupy its new $1.1 million facilities at Opa-locka.

This move to the north end of Dade County is forced because of present hazardous water landing conditions at Dinner Key. The new base will provide quarters for 174 officers and men, aircraft maintenance and storage spaces, refueling systems and administrative offices. The Miami Beach Coast Guard Base on MacArthur Causeway has an annual workload of some $750,000, employing both military and civilians. Its new, 90-man barracks building was completed in October 1963, providing housing and mess facilities for attached and transient forces, at a cost of ay margery heasler Each refugee boat that leaves the Cuban Coast is a potential distress case for the Coast Guard. Most are small, dangerously overcrowded, and carry little or no provisions.

Seventh District forces in six years have provided assistance to more than 7,000 refugees in small boats, at sea or stranded on one of the small coral islands off Cuba. Often tankers spot them first, and notify the service in Miami. Emergency food and water is dropped by aircraft and a Coast Guard cutter goes to the rescue. District units are also kept very busy enforcing U.S. laws and the government's policy on hit-and-run attacks by Cuban anti-Castro raiders.

Their activity in preventing such raids from being "launched, manned or equipped from U.S. territory" hasn't won the Coast Guard any medals for popularity among Cuban refugee groups in Miami. Our own happy, carefree American boatmen, setting out for a day of fishing, cruising or sailing, provide a staggering amount of work for Search and Rescue units. And a lot of it is caused by what might be called the purely unnecessary, including many of the telephone calls. A husband goes fishing, promising vaguely that he will be back before dark, or at some appointed hour he thinks will keep the little woman happy.

That time comes and goes. The worried wife will put off calling as long as she can stand it, which varies from a few minutes to far too long. She informs the Coast Guard that her husband isn't back yet and requests that all available craft be immediately dispatched. In a frustrating number of cases, the informant; has little more in There are about 2,000 officers and men in the Seventh Coast Guard District. Search and rescue units on patrol include some 20 major 'Vessels, the largest being the 255-foot cutter, Androscoggin, based at Miami Beach.

Aug. 4, 1790, President Washington signed a bill authorizing the construction of "10 fast cutters" for guarding the coast against smugglers. Today, of course, there are lots of other things to do, in the waters that wash up on South Florida shores. There are more recreational-type boats, from small outboards to ocean-going yachts, around here than in any other place in the world. There is commercial travel to the Bahamas and the Caribbean, and since 1959, when Castro came to power in Cuba, there have been the streams of sad little vessels bringing refugees fleeing the Communists.

The waters between our Florida Keys and the north coast of Cuba have become a gateway to freedom for thousands. The Rescue Coordination Center is the focal point of all operations for the district. A duty officer and staff stand by in the Federal Building 24 hours a day to control search and rescue operations. Available to this center are not only Coast Guard forces but many other search and rescue agencies, both military and civilian. The duly officer has a rapid means of communicating with all organizations having and capability, including the civilian volunteer Auxiliary Flotillas, State Board of Conservation boats and equipment, city and county bay patrols, and every good citizen boater on the water.

1 9 i 1 STORM CLOVDS brewing in the Atlantic don't prevent this small rescue boat, skippered by Boatswain 1st Class Joe Cardona, from performing its duty photos by jos rimkus FAGE 20 MIAMI The Miami New. AUGUST 1, 196S PAGE 25.