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In a previous blog I mentioned that the "Action" promise on the recruiting poster did come to fruition in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I decided to let you in on more details of my previously told blog about my off shore rescue.

The station's complement had just been awarded the afternoon off for Good Friday, 1952.  Fortunately there was still enough personnel to man two PBYs when the alarm sounded; Pan American Flight 526A, a four engine, DC-4 lost power in two engines and had ditched 7 miles northwest of San Juan. Apparently the plane broke apart and sank in less than 5 minutes. I think 50 or so people died, but a dozen or so and a crew of 5 survived. 

Oddly enough one of the pilots was John Burns who had been injured in the crash of a Pan Am Clipper in 1944 at Lisbon, Portugal. Also injured in Portugal was popular singer Jane Froman, whom he later married and divorced. The movie "With a Song in My Heart", starring Susan Hayward, was about Jane's recovery of her life and career.

After we landed on the water the pilot cut both engines for fear of the propellers hitting survivors that were bobbing in the water. We picked up two survivors in life jackets. When we got ready to leave the scene we discovered that the batteries were dead and the A.P.U. (Auxiliary Power Unit generator) had been removed for repair. Now is when "Danger" should be on that recruiting poster. I had to climb up on top of the engine cowling, insert a two-foot-long crank, and crank - hoping the engine would start and the accompanying prop-wash didn't blow me off the wing. As you can surmise, I did survive the "Action" as promised in the recruiting poster.  Life was/is good.

Having survived the snowy wet winter of 1949 in Port Angeles, Washington, I next was transferred to San Juan, Puerto Rico. While there I crewed on many side trips to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, so many flights that even $1.80 for a quart bottle of rum ceased to be an attraction.

The poster board promise of "Action, Security, Education, and Travel" pertained in Puerto Rico as it had in Washington State. During hurricane season we made numerous flights to drop notices to mariners, sailors and island inhabitants. I was honored to be selected for over-night flights to Port of Spain, Trinidad, the Panama Canal Zone and the most educational of all, Port au Prince, Haiti  I had never seen such poverty. We learned that our G.I. issued shoes (cost $5.50) were worth over $50.00 when buying hand made items from side walk merchants. Remember, I'm talking 1951 or so. In 1957 Francois Duvalier (Papa Doc) got himself elected President and began a reign of terror. Today when I see television coverage of Haiti; I think I'm looking at the grandchildren of people I saw there in 1951. They look worse now than they did then.

To fulfill the promise of "Action" I crewed a rescue flight with an offshore water-landing 7 miles northwest of San Juan. The PAA pilot executed a smooth ditching so only a few passengers were killed on contact, or by drowning. We picked up two survivors of the ditched Pan American flight to Miami. Our bouncy landing busted so many rivets we took on about 2 tons of sea water, making us too heavy to take off. So we taxied safely back to base.  Life was/is good.

Back in 1993, several FSU film students came into our shop, Sarasota Lock & Key, to ask us if we would allow them to do some filming in our shop for their final thesis project. We agreed to let them film on a Saturday when the shop was closed. Their class was separated into teams and each team was required to write an original story and screen play and hunt for filming sites, set up the filming locations with lights and sound equipment and food for the crew. Each member of the crew was required to work on every phase of the production including post production and editing.

They arrived at our shop at 7 a.m. in a huge truck and went to work setting up all their equipment and food and discussing how they were going to film each scene. It was fascinating watching them filming a scene from one angle and then doing it all over again from a different angle. That went on all day until 7 p.m. and the final editing netted about one and a half minutes of film showing our shop. That's a lot of work for one and a half minutes.

The plot of the film was very clever. The premise was that chaos has a pattern and in this case the pattern was that of a butterfly. The different problematic and chaotic events that happened around the state were tracked on a map with push pins and at the end the push pins formed a pattern in the shape of a butterfly.

As an interesting side note, at the 1994 Alamo American Film Competition's "Best in Florida" contest, "Chaos in Congerville" won first prize. Life was/is good.

My faithful readers of my myriad adventures, growing up in Sarasota, I hope, will allow me to reflect back to a time period that I think, helped to shape my "whole being.”

In 1948 the military draft was still very active, enlisting the young men of the community into the U.S. Army. Three years after the end of World War II things were still touch and go "over there" in Europe.

Myself, Leslie Rice & Carrol ("Fritzy") Koch decided our draft numbers were coming up and we didn't want to march all over Europe, so we enlisted into the U.S. Coast Guard in August of 1948.

While in basic training in Cape May, New Jersey we three wrote such letters of praise home that soon seven of our SHS classmates enlisted in the Coast Guard.

The recruiting poster promised "Action, Security, Education, Travel".  Some of my action and travel I wrote about in my blog for April 8, 2009. I found today's snapshot of the JRF 5A, Grumman Goose in one of my photograph albums. We remained over night and refueled at a former R.C.A.F amphibian outpost near Bella Bella, British Columbia. There were no landing strips so we had to make water landings and take-offs. Fortunately we had no mechanical problems and I was able to maintain radio contact with our base at Port Angeles, Washington.   Life was/is good.

Years ago, probably 35 at least, a friend of mine, who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty, and I decided that since we lived in this gorgeous community with the bay and the Gulf practically at our back door, we should really learn to sail. So we signed up for sailing classes with the Luffing Lassies out at City Island.

On our first day out we received instructions as to the handling of the pram and we set out to prove our seaworthiness. We both did fairly well for our first attempt until we were approaching the dock and my friend made an error in judgment and slammed into the dock dismasting her pram. Needless to say, our first day of sailing lessons was also our last day of sailing lessons.

Life is/was good.

Photo Credit: Lillian Burns Collection