The Commander Elmer F. Stone Award is presented to Air Station Barbers Point crew CGNR 1790 in recognition of their heroic efforts 9 July to 11 July 2015. The actions of LCDR Alongi, LT Chase, AMTC Starr, AET2 Osterhout, AET2 Wandell, AMT2 Andrew, and AMT3 Chaney resulted in the saving of 5 lives. On July 9th, Air Station Barbers Point received a launch notification to assist the island nation of Kiribati in finding five fishermen, who departed Teraina Island in a 14 foot skiff with no motor, radio or survival equipment, and had been missing for two days. The crew of CGNR 1790 oversaw the extensive planning effort to stage out of Christmas Island, and overcame significant logistical obstacles involved with operating out of an isolated foreign island nation. During the search effort, the aircrew mitigated the challenges presented by the lack of assets and planning tools by enlisting local sailing vessels in the search, and obtaining drift calculations from a nearby schooner.
After completing multiple patterns on the second day, the crew demonstrated exceptional on scene initiative by modifying the search action plan provided, taking into account the previously deployed Self Locating Datum Marker Buoy drift information, on scene environmental data and local knowledge. On the second leg of the new search, CGNR 1719 located the vessel and five survivors over 200 miles from their departure location, well outside of any assigned search area. With no vessels within 200 miles and nearing BINGO fuel state, the crew elected to deliver a Personal Locator Beacon from a crew survival vest along with a raft and supplies to ensure the stranded fishermen would survive overnight until a surface vessel could transit to their location. Knowing that returning to scene in time to vector the rescue vessel to the location was paramount, the crew decided to request a waiver of crew rest requirements from the Commanding Officer, in order to relocate the skiff and provide position updates. Shortly after arriving back on scene with the skiff, the rescue vessel was vectored alongside the survivors, saving five lives.
THEIR AERONAUTICAL SKILL AND COMPETENCE UNDER EXTREME CONDITIONS ARE IN KEEPING WITH THE TRADITION OF COMMANDER ELMER STONE AND ADDED A PROUD CHAPTER TO THE HISTORY OF COAST GUARD AVIATION.