USCG, Marine crews collaborate in joint training exercise
Coast Guard Sector San Diego crew members partnered with the Marine Corps 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during a hoist training exercise over the skies of San Diego Bay, March 19.
Hoist training consisted of two teams, Coast Guard pilots in the air and a Marine Corps small boat crew on the water. Coast Guard aviators dropped a line to the boat crew below, which allowed them to coordinate and hoist a rescue basket from the boat to the helicopter.
“The Coast Guard trains routinely with Coast Guard surface assets for hoist training, typically two to three days per week,” said Lt. Cmdr. Jack Shadwick, the Coast Guard Sector San Diego ground safety officer. “However, this is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to hoist with Marine Open Water Safety Crafts in San Diego.”
Hoist training is when crews use the rescue hoist onboard the MH-60T helicopter to conduct simulated rescues from varying environments such as vessels, cliffs, and urban environments, said Lt. Vincent Knaeble, Coast Guard Sector San Diego MH-60T pilot.
Coast Guard crews regularly participate in exercises in order to ensure readiness and safety of life at sea, which enables them to perform hoists needed to maintain qualifications. These qualifications allow them to perform medevac requests from a boat or ship.
With one of the Coast Guard’s primary missions being search and rescue, the ability to maintain hoist capabilities is critical in order to keep search and rescue operations running.
