When the United States Coast Guard gets brought up in conversation people usually think of rescue missions saving boaters stuck at sea or hikers stranded in the middle of nowhere.
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account and connect your subscription to it by clicking here.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active, online-only subscription then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
ROCHELLE – When the United States Coast Guard gets brought up in conversation people usually think of rescue missions saving boaters stuck at sea or hikers stranded in the middle of nowhere.
For Micah Svela, an RTHS graduate from Steward who is now a flight mechanic for the USCG, an exercise this past weekend gave him a chance to make a visit home.
“We were just doing area familiarization and were able to come more inland for this flight. Which made it able for us to fly over the family farm and stop in Rochelle to say ‘hi,’” explained Svela.
Svela is based out of Puerto Rico and the rest of the crew is based out of Detroit. The helicopter and crew are stationed in Waukegan, from Memorial Day through Labor Day to help with search and rescue missions on Lake Michigan during the summer months. The base in Waukegan protects the lower half of Lake Michigan, while the base in Traverse City protects the upper half.
“From Waukegan, we pretty much do the lower half of Lake Michigan, so anything from Waukegan all the way across the lake and south is our area,” Svela said. “If we need to go north, we can go all the way up to Milwaukee or Green Bay if there is a case up there. The air station in Traverse City usually takes the northern half.”
