Captain Lynn N. Hein, USCG (Ret)
Too bad I didn't have more notice and that the STORIS decommissioning is scheduled for February 8th in Kodiak. I would have liked to attend since I consider my tour aboard as XO from December 1967 to June 1968 the best tour of duty I had in over 30 years of service. We worked hard, played hard and were gone from home port (Kodiak) about 78% of that time, but sure saw a lot and accomplished a lot. My son also served in STORIS on his first tour out of the CG Academy and we both would have attended if it was more feasible.
While you are listing all the "firsts" of STORIS, I hope you will include the ones we created during my time aboard. To the best of my knowledge, we arrested and seized the first Russian trawler ever seized by the United States for fishing within our Territorial waters (3 mile limit). The Russian side-trawler SRTM 8-413 was arrested and seized in the Aleutians by STORIS on 2 March 1967 for fishing illegally within our territorial seas.
The 12 mile Contiguous Zone was not law on 2 March 1967, but when it became effective about 2 weeks later, STORIS seized the first Russian fishing vessel ever seized by the U.S. for fishing in our contiguous zone. On 22 March, 1967 the Russian side-trawler SRTM 8-457 was seized by STORIS near the Shumagin Islands in the Aleutians for fishing illegally within the 12 mile limit.
We had learned many things from the first seizure and applied them quickly to the second seizure, such as securing their radios, giving them an ultimatum to follow us or be towed within a specified time etc. We did tow the SRTM 8-457 for about 2 days into Kodiak where we nested with them for 3 days at anchor in the harbor while the Master was taken to U.S. District Court in Anchorage for trial, along with several witnesses from STORIS.
There are many other details to these events, but suffice to say that it was an all-hands evolution.
Other STORIS stories come to mind: a visit to the Pribilof's; "rubber docking" drills and liberty ashore in the then uninhabited Dutch Harbor; response to the vessel "Panoceanic Faith" sinking; sailing out of Kodiak on a SAR case when the then Navy Harbor Control would not give us permission to get underway because they considered it too rough; getting chewed out by the Navy Base CO because our crew hung a sign "Buoy 14 or Bust" on the one small Navy ship in Kodiak before it was going to get underway for drills for the first time in months; well, you get the drift of this.
I hope the old girl will have a wonderful decommissioning ceremony and perhaps have an interesting life even after retirement from active service. I would like to visit her again.
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