Coast Guard Day

Today was a very important day. Known to the world as Coast Guard Day and it is the services birthday. The day we consider to be our birthday is the Fourth of August 1790 when Alexander Hamilton commissioned the construction of the first ten cutters. These vessels became known as the Revenue Cutter Service and eventually evolved to he modern Coast Guard in 1915. As the original ten cutters were to collect tariffs, we are no longer known for that. The modern day Coast Guard served the public by providing Search and Rescue, Maritime Security, Environmental Protection, Maritime Law Enforcement and Aids to Navigation. I suppose that is a little more responsibility than just collecting revenue. Enough of the History Lesson, I just wanted to give you a little background on the significance of the day.
Now to the more relevant part of what we did to celebrate. First we did not work, and slept in late. I didn’t because I did P90X at 0500, but that was by choice. We then did a Celtic competition of strength and might followed by morale boating, wiffle ball, paintball, board games and some partying in the connex. I kept myself busy and participated in the Celtic Games, wiffle ball, paintball and the board game. I wanted to go out on the ATV’s but no one else wanted to go out. So we played a game of Axis and Allies instead. It was fun to work as a team and win the game.
The Celtic Games consisted of four competitions. The first was the dumbbell carry. They had to be carried about 70 feet to the line and then back. That is not so easy with a 100 pound weight in each hand. The second was the 25 pound weight thow. Just throw the weigh as far as you can. Third was the Iron Cross with 20 pound dumbbells. You will recognize it from the photograph. The final was the pebble toss to hit a bucket after you had done everything else. After all was said and done there was a tie for third, so we created one more challenge. A combination of the first two events with a sprint added to the end. It was an overall fun event to participate and watch.
The rest of the day we had to do something athletic, so we decided to play wiffle ball. After the event was piped and the teams selected, we took to the area we designated in for the diamond. Nothing fancy, just between the buildings. I was a fun game with a final score of thirteen to seven, the underdogs taking the victory. We had to repair the bad midgame with some duct tape, they just don’t make that equipment very tough. After the wiffle ball game a group decided to do some paintball. It was fun, I got shot several times, but it did not hurt as much as I remembered. Maybe I am just tougher now. We had four on four teams. Pojar and I chose teams because we had not played before. Pojars team won three out of four times. It was still fun. I got to shoot paintballs at the XPO. I made the mistake of not calling when I was running out, and got shot several times in the first game. I learned by the last game that if I called out that I was going, my teammates would cover me. I almost got Chief Casey and Miller. Miller got me in the end though. It was a well-placed shot. Later that night I got a call from Cash to play Axis and Allies. I suppose I was “voluntold” to play. That was all right because it was a fun game and the allies won. The world was saved from the Cash and Nearpass. It was equally fun as risk, just different in regards to strategy. As the evening settled on us, we had a jam session and a party in the connex. A little beer, some live music and people just having fun.
That is how we celebrated. I hope that even if you did not know about Coast Guard Day, you had a wonderful day wherever you were. That you found something to celebrate and be thankful for.