Episode 67: Jim Rambus - BMCS (Ret.) - Coxswain - OIC - Lighthouse Keeper - Lightship Sailor
They Had to Go OutShow Notes
As we continue to celebrate the centennial of Coast Guard Chief Petty Officers we talk with Senior Chief Boatswain’s Mate Jim Rambus (Ret.) who tells of the dangers of logistic runs to the shoals and reefs of the Great Lakes where manned lighthouses once stood, including a lesson in confidence for a new coxswain after swamping a 40 footer during a personnel transfer and the near loss of a crew when their boat’s engines died in icy waters, the dangers of lightship duty during hurricanes and heavy fog, commanding three boat stations as an enlisted Officer in Charge, a fatal snap back after the service’s boats first transitioned from manila to nylon towlines, the service’s move from Treasury to Transportation, and what it means to be a Chief Petty Officer.
More from They Had to Go Out
Vice Admiral Sandra Stosz (Ret.) talks twelve years at sea aboard six different cutters ranging from red to white to black hulls, icebreaking as a newly minted ensign, command of a cutter defending the approaches to New York after 9/11, running high seas search and rescue aboard polar icebreakers, leading the service’s recruit training center and its academy, serving at the highest levels of leadership as the aid to the Secretary of Transportation, and her new book “Breaking Ice and Breaking Glass: Leading in Uncharted Waters”. Learn more at https://sandrastosz.com/book/breaking-ice-and-breaking-glass/ #uscg #coastguard #icebreaking #admiral #military #seaservice #veteran
For this episode we welcome our first ever Yeoman to the show and he does not disappoint. CAPT John Marks (Ret.) talks adventures in the South Pacific including visits to the leper colony on Molokai and a murder at a remote LORAN station, running a Miss Ocean Station contest with flight stewardesses from the middle of the North Atlantic, how the concept of “member’s responsibility” developed along with the Yeoman correspondence course, the punches and sponges of the first ever Servicewide Exam, becoming a Chief Petty Officer, Officer Candidate School, surviving the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, developing NORTHCOM, and rising from an E2 to an O6 to lead the post 9/11 port security grant program. You don’t want to miss this one.
Former LCDR Lee Fanning talks service as a Flight Surgeon at Air Station San Francisco, responding on his first day of duty to the crash landing of a 747 with 300 souls aboard, dodging pine trees and traversing coastal cliffs to save the life of an injured hiker, a violent air hijacking, and flying missions as aircrew aboard the Sikorsky HH52A. To hear more check out Doc Fanning’s book “Rescues from the Sky” available now at https://rescuesfromtheskybyleewaltersmd.com/ #uscg #coastguard #theyhadtogoout
Chief Boatswains Mate Jeff Rusiecki (Ret.) talks being at the helm for the attempted rescue of the fishing vessel Sea King as she foundered on the Columbia River Bar, how that case connected him to the survivor of a similar tragedy from the 1960s involving the loss of three motor lifeboats and several crewmen; servicing aids to navigation along the remote Alaskan coastline, seizing the first go fast under the Zero Tolerance policy, and training a new generation of surfmen at the National Motor Lifeboat School.
Former MK Jim Morphew talks a near decade of service on the Gulf Coast, two tours at one of the service’s least requested duty stations in Grand Isle, Louisiana; interdicting tons of marijuana in the opening days of the War on Drugs; the sights, sounds, and emotions of the mass migration from Cuba known as the Mariel Boatlift; cruising aboard a prototype Surface Effect Ship (SES); and overcoming post traumatic stress with the help of Veterans Affairs.