Aids to Navigation (ATON)

“Kill the engines,” Jackson ordered. In the eerie quiet, they heard a metallic tapping. Closer now, they saw a man in a second-story attic window, striking its metal bars with a quarter. He and his bedridden, 87-year-old mother had been trapped for days in water up to their necks. Jackson’s team sawed through the attic ceiling.

Katrina destroyed between 70-90% of all the navigational aids on the Mississippi River south of Baton Rouge. With rescue and evacuation activities complete, Pamlico’s next priority was to restore aids to navigation and to make the river more accessible for recovery activities.

The Coast Guard’s response to Katrina was not simply wild improvisation. After gaining significant hurricane response experience during Hurricanes Hugo and Bob, planning, training, and extensive preparations were made for a catastrophic weather scenario. Coast Guardsmen in the field would rely heavily on these plans and preparations. These instructions could be summarized as “don’t wait for permission,” and they became the basis for successful improvisation.

In the Great Galveston Hurricane, Harry Claiborne demonstrated great devotion to duty. He manned the light in the worst sea and weather conditions and saved hundreds of storm victims.

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of schooner Carroll A. Deering’s crew of 11 or 12 men has never been solved although the Department of Justice had been called in to investigate rumors of “piracy.”

It was at Guanica on a stormy night in 1914 that Domingo Suarez witnessed a pilot boat capsize beyond the mouth of the bay. Without hesitation, he jumped into the water and assisted the boat’s crew to safety, earning a U.S. Lighthouse Service commendation.