First, I spent over 3 years at the busiest Search and Rescue station in the Coast Guard, NAS Reserve New Orleans. Keven Costner played a Master Chief on SAR missions, that virtually never happens. The chiefs went home at 4:00 and the grunts took over. And during the day the ready crew for SAR missions was always E-6 and below.
Sometimes the senior officers went on SAR missions as pilots but never senior chiefs. I was an E-6 when I got out after logging over 1000 hours as a crewman. I will agree with others unless things have changed there was never any hurah just hard work and lots of it. We often worked 36 hours straight and put peoples lives at risk because of absolute fatigue! I was involved in multiple life saving missions as well as missions to pick up those that did not survive.
It was an amazing experience but I also no longer miss wondering if I will live or die during a mission. I sent a MayDay and also flew on another mission that declared and emergency. In the 4 months before I got out 3 helos crashed and there was one survivor out of all the crashes, 11 men giving their lives. Also, there was never any melodrama when we were making life and death decision, we fully understood our responsibilities and it was always very professional when we were forced to make those decisions!
FYI if you watched the movie my number was about 6 or 7, it was a hard number to think about and decide. But that was in about 3 years and 3 months.
Sometimes the senior officers went on SAR missions as pilots but never senior chiefs. I was an E-6 when I got out after logging over 1000 hours as a crewman. I will agree with others unless things have changed there was never any hurah just hard work and lots of it. We often worked 36 hours straight and put peoples lives at risk because of absolute fatigue! I was involved in multiple life saving missions as well as missions to pick up those that did not survive.
It was an amazing experience but I also no longer miss wondering if I will live or die during a mission. I sent a MayDay and also flew on another mission that declared and emergency. In the 4 months before I got out 3 helos crashed and there was one survivor out of all the crashes, 11 men giving their lives. Also, there was never any melodrama when we were making life and death decision, we fully understood our responsibilities and it was always very professional when we were forced to make those decisions!
FYI if you watched the movie my number was about 6 or 7, it was a hard number to think about and decide. But that was in about 3 years and 3 months.