German Coast Guard Trainee

[Emergency Laughter]

Semper Paratus!

[Richard B the EMT]

Aside from being a good "language" joke, it is kind of an insult to the coast guards of all maritime nations.

[MarkusEMS]

not sure how to say zis but I was raist bi-lingual Dschmeran and yet I get a good giggle out of it

[Emergency Laughter]

Aside from being a good "language" joke, it is kind of an insult to the coast guards of all maritime nations.

Sorry for taking so long to set you straight....

Richard…Negative, repeat negative! It’s not an insult to the Coast Guard, I don’t see it that way at all.

The subject of the humor is a mayday call being sent out in English and the response to it, by a German speaking trainee. Having the luxury of attaching humor to that subject, and the Coast Guard community, is, in itself, a statement to the preeminence of The Coast Guard, of any nation, but specifically, for me personally, the United States Coast Guard.

You don’t make fun of some poor incompetent schlep of an organization or person. What’s the fun in that? There’s no humor, all you’re being is mean and that makes you a suck-ass person. (I don’t mean YOU personally)

No…people poke fun at the best of the best, the organizations who can laugh at themselves because they know they’re bad and they know, nobody takes care of business like they do.

It was a Coasty that turned me on to the video. Because it’s funny. Especially if you’ve responded to actual maritime mayday calls.

In my mind, there are two things that make this video funny and have meaning-the first is the semantic juxtaposition of the German and English language. The second is the classic use of dichotomy and surprise with one of the most sobering calls for help.

Every Sailor, Merchant Marine, Commercial Fisherman, Aviator and now Firefighters, know the chill that runs through the body when a radio crackles, “Mayday, mayday, mayday!” The only word I can think of to describe it is visceral. You change course, make the ship ready, and go!

I revere the men and women of the USCG. I might even go as far as saying, “I love those people!” I spent eight years working as one of the only fully equipped, dedicated medic’s in the Bering Sea. Where category 2 hurricane type weather is called, “A really bad storm,” or simply, “Shitty weather.”

I lost count of how many times I stood on the forecastle of a ship feeling the deafening rotor wash of a USCG helicopter maintaining position above my head. I don’t know about anybody else’s Coast Guard, but the ones operating up in the Bering Sea kick ass and save lives.

[island emt]

We operate in conjunction with the Coastguard quite a bit. They hate it when a tourist drives a boat on the rocks in our area, because it means they have to thread their way up here tween the rocks & shoals.

These are dangerous waters around our Islands and the 41 boats don't have training wheels on the bottoms of the hulls. :-}

We also have some pretty large tides so they hate to come up inshore as they got caught a couple of years ago on the outbound tide and had to sit in the mud to await the next tide coming back in. Very embarrassing to have clam diggers bring drinks & sandwiches out to them across the mud.

Funny thing about the Coasties. Many of them are from landlocked states like Kansas, Iowa, Colorado or Nebraska. Interesting to see them farm boys out on the big blue oceans.

[srothig]

I was a farm boy from Montana and I did fine on the USCGC 720 Sherman doing counter narcotics and imigration in Central America and search and rescue and

Fishery patrols in the Bering sea and ATON ON USCGC WLB 205 out of Honolulu.. either way the video is kinda out there funny though

Edited October 1, 2013 by srothig

[Richard B the EMT]

Kind of reminds me of an old story.

The sergeant is giving instructions to a new Military Police Officer...

"If a soldier walks up the road to your post, what do you do?"

"I challenge him or her, saying 'Halt! Who goes there?'"

"What if it's the General?"

"Same thing, sergeant."

"If the General doesn't have his ID card?"

"I'd call for the Captain of the Guard, sergeant, and ask his advisement"

"What if an ocean liner came up to your guard booth?"

"First, I'd call Private Pederson..."

"Excuse me? You'd call another Private?"

"No, just Pederson, sergeant. He's from Oklahoma, and never seen an ocean liner."

PS, the USCG cutters Cape Straight (spelling?) and Point Huron used to be stationed not too far from me, at USCG Station Rockaway Point, NY. We also had a helicopter base across Jamaica Bay at USCG Air Station Brooklyn (Floyd Bennett Field), NY. Station Rockaway Point is now a National Parks Service boat base, and the former Air Station is now used by NYPD Aviation as their headquarters.