T&T: (no subject)

[Jim Healy]

David asked that I post this for him:

SNIP:
There are simply too many "anecdotal" stories related in this thread to
assume there isn't a problem. Now the real question is, does anyone have any
idea how to FIX it?
 
Jim Healy aboard Sanctuary,
currently at Pasadena, MD

REPLY:

Amen! Maybe somebody on the list could take the initiative and collect this
thread and then forward it on to an upper level CG commander. A couple of
years ago the USCG had hearings around the Great Lakes about proposed
live-fire training (machine gun practice). There was a big public uproar.
Anyway, the ninth district CG brass came to our city

(Duluth) for one of the hearings. I was casually sharing my ideas with
several officers prior to the meeting because I could not stay for the
formal hearing. I said something like, "In my opinion . . ." Meanwhile, the
9th district commandant passed by in full dress uniform. He stopped and
said, would you please tell me your opinion. And he listened. 

However, my interaction with coasties of lower rank indicates to me a
culture of "us versus them." Several years ago, I wrote a letter to the
editor of a Great Lakes boating magazine critical of the CG along the lines
of this thread. Shortly thereafter, I received a phone call from the station
commander of a local CG unit involved in the incident about which I wrote. I
suspect he got orders from above to apologize and try and make good on the
shabby situation which we experienced at the hands of that CG unit. But
then, thereafter, I have every suspicion the low ranking coasties of that
unit, knowing my boat, would lay in wait to stop us for any reason and
essentially harrass us.

Why doesn't someone assemble this thread and send it to a CG official. I
must confess, I don't know how to do that or where to send it, but others on
this list certainly do.

David Sorenson

Duluth