Recent from talks
Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod
The missions of CGAS Cape Cod include search and rescue (SAR), maritime law enforcement, International Ice Patrol, aids to navigation support (such as operating lighthouses), and marine environmental protection (such as responding to oil spills). Currently, CGAS Cape Cod maintains and operates the HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft, along with HH-60 Jayhawk helicopters. CGAS Cape Cod is located in part within the town of Sandwich, Massachusetts.
In the 1950s, helicopters began to be incorporated into the United States Coast Guard. One such helicopter, the H-25A Army Mule was built with amphibious capabilities. Float planes were no longer needed because of this development. Therefore, places like Coast Guard Air Station Salem were slowly being phased out. In the 1960s, the Coast Guard began searching for a replacement facility for Coast Guard Air Station Salem, that was in service from 1935 to 1970. Salem was not able to expand, and the Coast Guard needed a space that could grow as needed and accommodate modern aircraft.
In 1968, the Department of Defense agreed to allow the Coast Guard to utilize Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod for a new Coast Guard air station. Air Station Cape Cod was officially established/commissioned on August 29, 1970. The HH-3F Pelicans and HU-16E Albatrosses were transferred from CGAS Salem and CGAD Quonset Point Rhode Island (NAS) to Cape Cod in the summer of 1970.
The CG-1432 crash was a United States Coast Guard aviation accident which involved five crewmembers aboard a helicopter responding to a distress call from the Japanese fishing vessel Kaisei Maru #18.
On the morning of February 18, 1979, Kaisei Maru #18 sent a distress call. The call indicated that a 47-year-old crewmember was in distress and needed to be airlifted off the ship, which was operating in the North Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky HH-3F Pelican helicopter CG-1432 from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod was alerted and sent out to the vessel.
The weather that morning was stormy and conditions were not ideal for flight. On the way to Kasei Maru #18, the helicopter (which was designed to be amphibious) was forced to ditch into the sea after losing power. It remained stable for a brief time before the heavy seas flipped it. This most likely caused the death of four crew members: Canadian Armed Forces Captain G. Richard Burge (exchange copilot), and U.S. Coast Guard personnel Lieutenant Commander James Stiles (Aircraft Commander), Petty Officer Second Class John Tait (Avionicsman/Navigator), and Petty Officer Second Class Bruce Kaehler (Hospital Corpsman). The lone survivor, Petty Officer Second Class Mark Torr (Flight Mechanic/Hoist Operator), remembers the flipping of the helicopter and swimming out, holding onto the nose wheel to stay near the aircraft.
The first vessel to the rescue was Kaisei Maru #18, which rescued Torr and circled the ditched helicopter for 15 hours, looking for survivors and eventually recovering the bodies of the four dead crewmembers.
In an article in the Cape Cod Times that ran on February 22, 1979, the air station's commanding officer, Captain Arthur Wagner, said, "They will never be forgotten. They set down a high standard for all of us to follow." A legacy was set in which a reunion would be held every year so that the men would not be forgotten.
Hub AI
Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod AI simulator
(@Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod_simulator)
Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod
The missions of CGAS Cape Cod include search and rescue (SAR), maritime law enforcement, International Ice Patrol, aids to navigation support (such as operating lighthouses), and marine environmental protection (such as responding to oil spills). Currently, CGAS Cape Cod maintains and operates the HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft, along with HH-60 Jayhawk helicopters. CGAS Cape Cod is located in part within the town of Sandwich, Massachusetts.
In the 1950s, helicopters began to be incorporated into the United States Coast Guard. One such helicopter, the H-25A Army Mule was built with amphibious capabilities. Float planes were no longer needed because of this development. Therefore, places like Coast Guard Air Station Salem were slowly being phased out. In the 1960s, the Coast Guard began searching for a replacement facility for Coast Guard Air Station Salem, that was in service from 1935 to 1970. Salem was not able to expand, and the Coast Guard needed a space that could grow as needed and accommodate modern aircraft.
In 1968, the Department of Defense agreed to allow the Coast Guard to utilize Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod for a new Coast Guard air station. Air Station Cape Cod was officially established/commissioned on August 29, 1970. The HH-3F Pelicans and HU-16E Albatrosses were transferred from CGAS Salem and CGAD Quonset Point Rhode Island (NAS) to Cape Cod in the summer of 1970.
The CG-1432 crash was a United States Coast Guard aviation accident which involved five crewmembers aboard a helicopter responding to a distress call from the Japanese fishing vessel Kaisei Maru #18.
On the morning of February 18, 1979, Kaisei Maru #18 sent a distress call. The call indicated that a 47-year-old crewmember was in distress and needed to be airlifted off the ship, which was operating in the North Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky HH-3F Pelican helicopter CG-1432 from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod was alerted and sent out to the vessel.
The weather that morning was stormy and conditions were not ideal for flight. On the way to Kasei Maru #18, the helicopter (which was designed to be amphibious) was forced to ditch into the sea after losing power. It remained stable for a brief time before the heavy seas flipped it. This most likely caused the death of four crew members: Canadian Armed Forces Captain G. Richard Burge (exchange copilot), and U.S. Coast Guard personnel Lieutenant Commander James Stiles (Aircraft Commander), Petty Officer Second Class John Tait (Avionicsman/Navigator), and Petty Officer Second Class Bruce Kaehler (Hospital Corpsman). The lone survivor, Petty Officer Second Class Mark Torr (Flight Mechanic/Hoist Operator), remembers the flipping of the helicopter and swimming out, holding onto the nose wheel to stay near the aircraft.
The first vessel to the rescue was Kaisei Maru #18, which rescued Torr and circled the ditched helicopter for 15 hours, looking for survivors and eventually recovering the bodies of the four dead crewmembers.
In an article in the Cape Cod Times that ran on February 22, 1979, the air station's commanding officer, Captain Arthur Wagner, said, "They will never be forgotten. They set down a high standard for all of us to follow." A legacy was set in which a reunion would be held every year so that the men would not be forgotten.
Recent media