Group of Teachers and Students Visit New London Coast Guard Station

The Birch Group brought dozens of high school teachers, community college teachers and middle school students together in New London for a week of tours, culminating on Wednesday with a dinner with the Coast Guard admiral, and a Thursday tour of the New London .

According to John Birch, the President of the Birch Group, participants from afar away as Puerto Rico came to New London “to learn skills they can integrate into classrooms as well as professional skills, such as team building and using the DISC behavioral model“ (which includes becoming a good conductor, persuader, promoter, relater, explorer, supporter, coordinator, analyzer and implementer).  “The intent of the program” said Birch, “is to get young people interested in STEM careers.”

At the Coast Guard Station, the team was divided into three groups and took tours of different parts of the station.  Each group was shown the 45-series ships and the inside of the station, given a tour of the Morro Bay ship, and a view of the ship Chinook, culminating with a demonstration of a search and rescue by a Coast Guard helicopter.

The 45-series ships provide security for subs as they go out to sea.  According to our guide, each submarine must be escorted by two ships.  Occasionally, Coast Guard ships must also escort ferries as they travel from one port to the next.  Each year, approximately 100 ferries will be escorted by 45-series ships. 

Their second mission is search and rescue.  Interestingly, the 45-series ships cannot roll over.  If they do so, they will automatically right themselves.  Each boat contains 4-5 crewmen, although the minimum they carry is three.

While each Coast Guard member must be a basic first responder, if there is a medical case, the crew will call the for an ambulance who will respond to the situation along with the ship.  Normally, crew members do not get in the water, as the risk goes up that both the civilian(s) in the water and the responder will be injured or killed.  The 45-series ships have special rigging that can be flipped into the water for a victim to hold on to, from which the crew can lift them on to the boat.

However, the 45s do not do underwater rescue.  If there is a plane crash, for example, the Coast Guard will try to pull people from the surface and run security for the NTSB.

Inside the station building, we were shown the 25-series being worked on.  The 25s have fewer bells and whistles than the 45s, and are also trailable, unlike the 45s.  We also passed by the radio watch room, which is manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  The Coast Guard members are on duty 48 hours on, 48 off, similar to firemen.

On our way to the Morro Bay ship, I spoke with Dorene Perez, from Illinois Valley Community College.  Her specialty is computer-aided design.  She is an investigator for the National Science Foundation and is interested in getting lesson plans for high school and middle school kids.  “I want to recruit younger kids for STEM,” she said.  “This program is excellent.  The people from the Coast Guard have been outstanding in trying to educate us,” she said.  “We had dinner with the admiral on Wednesday night.  Having a female admiral was exciting.”

The 30-year-old Morro Bay is designed to break through ice, and has no immediate plans to be replaced or worked on.  She carries about 20 crew, although the minimum she can carry is 17.  We traveled from the front deck down to the galley and saw guardsmen relaxing for the day.  We then went out to the port deck and around to the stern.  Some of the equipment was still bent from seriously high waves, which gave us an understanding as to the weather conditions faced by the Morro Bay.

The last ship we saw was the Chinook.  Coast Guard rising senior Anders Manley was interning at the station for the summer and gave us some information about the small raft moored inside the stern of the ship, a boat used primarily for law enforcement and boarding other ship for legal reasons or safety.

Not long after we boarded the Chinook, the search and rescue demonstration began.  A flare was dropped from a helicopter which then lowered itself, blowing the flare under the dock.  It was unclear if that was the intention, but nevertheless the helicopter lowered a cage down to the water and back up, demonstrating how it would rescue someone trapped at sea.

The program is funded in part by the Connecticut College of Technology's Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing, a National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Center