Fishhuntcutwood

[fishhuntcutwood]

Jeff, yeah, we would never interfere.....
It was a group effort with at least three agency's/ CG,BP and FFW.

I know you wouldn't interfere. The folks that do make us roll our eyes, as being the collosal idiots. I know from experience you're far from any semblance of an idiot. It's people like you that we like to interact with. There's people that genuinely want to see and watch out of honest interest, and we love them. Then there's people that want to be part of what they see because they're wannabe's, and we can't stand them. They're the ones that get called on the radio and are asked to stand down.


And we do work more and more with the various agencies. After 9/11 it really all came together.....it had to. We're all on the same team. All of us not working together is stupid.

 

[stehansen]

Jeff, yeah, we would never interfere. Just awsome to watch. Sunday, they had a real live incident. Some Cubans on a home made boat got very close to shore. All but one were cooperative, they had a little trouble getting him on the rescue boat. IFrom what I heard, he was trying to swim to shore and an officer, either CG FFW, or BP, had to get in the water to get him out. All of them are heading back to Cuba, probably to some God forsaken jail.

It was a group effort with at least three agency's/ CG,BP and FFW.

That's too bad.

 

[vharrison]

Gary, what do you hear from Jeff? Is he catching any fish off the back of the cutter? Tell him I said hi!

 

[GASoline71]

Gigi... Jeff is doing well... he hasn't got to do as much fishin' as he would like to. I think he is busier than he thought he would be. Not sayin' he didn't know that goin' in... but I think he has just been so busy that he has not had time to fish as much.

I have a couple of pics to post... but no dice right now. vbulletin still not allowing me to upload.

I sent him another email and told him to give a shout to the Treehouse so I could copy and paste it here.

Gary

 

[GASoline71]

Here ya go Gigi... just in from Jeff this mornin'...

Hey man. We left Panama a few days ago, and are now just out and about on patrol. No real excitement to speak of yet. Just a lot of ocean and flight time. They're flying us like a borrowed kite-all day and all night. So far the plane has been good for me, and hasn't caused me any major maintenance problems. Still looking for a come-home date, but probably still two or three weeks out. Hey gotta do what ya gotta do.

Tell everyone I'm doing well, I'm sweating like a hog, and even though I'm hitting the gym twice a day, I'm still a fat slob. Oh, and my farmer's tan rocks!

What's the latest and greatest at the TH? What kinda of action am I missing?

I'll attach some pics for you to post if you like. You and Butch may recognize the "blueberries" in the pics. Did you guys call the tie-downs that? The fuel team are grapes. One is of a HIFR (Helicopter In Flight Refueling) and the other is just the tie down team securing us after a landing.

Jeff

AMT1 Jeff Breidenbach
Plane Captain 6514/CGC Mellon

"I am the Walrus...Coo-Coo-Ca-Choo!"

Gary

 

[squisher]

Cool! I can hardly wait to see some pics.

 

[vharrison]

Good to hear from him!

 

[sotc]

thanks gary

 

[Chisel Tooth]

Thanks for the update Gary. Be sure to tell him HEY! from all of us.

 

[GASoline71]

Here are some of the pics Jeff sent me...

Gary

 

[vharrison]

Awsome! Thanks Gary!

 

[GASoline71]

You bet Gigi...

here is this mornings installment... looks like he and some buddies had a kick ass time while on the beach...

Hmmph! I went peacock bass fishing in Panama. What a cluster frig that was. I guess the Navy or someone has a bunch of "tours" they have set up with local folks, like horseback tours through the jungle, rainforest tours, dinner tours, etc. One of them was a peacock bass tour. I'm all in for that. So I dropped the $100 on it and then did some research on the internet. Google "Gatun peacock bass" and you'll read what I read.

I was stoked! Big fish, nice boats, and away I go! Nope. They shoved me and the three other gringos from the cutter in a 10' John boat with ankle deep water in it, and an 8 hp motor! The tour description stated that all gear was provided, along with 200 minnows per person. I brought a bunch of fly gear, so I was fortunately set because we got probably 100 minnows for the whole boat, and the rods were dry-rotted, antiquated pieces of shit. One guy broke one on the first fish, which was all of 10"! The fish averaged about 12" long, but we caught a bunch.

The "guide" was of course fishing too, keeping his fish, throwing them in the cooler and charging us to filet them. And he brought five rods, each with ONE hook. Break that hook off, and he had no spares. He had to call another "guide" to come over and loan us a single hook. It was the most unprofessional, ridiculous outfit I've ever seen. But we had a friggin blast!

We laughed so hard throughout the day, talked so much shit to each other, and drank some cheap Panamanian beer-$7 for a 18 pack! Then they took us back to the dock and fried our fish for us, along with some French fries. Turns out the guy who owns the operation also makes moonshine rum. So we all got liquored up on that shit and rode back to P. City buzzin hard. It was a good time. I've got pics of that too.

Man, flew damn near 5 hours today. I'm beat, and going to bed. Later buddy.

Jeff

AMT1 Jeff Breidenbach
Plane Captain 6514/CGC Mellon

"I am the Walrus...Coo-Coo-Ca-Choo!"

Gary

 

[MasterBlaster]

Sweet! Thanks for posting!

 

[OTGBOSTON]

can't wait to see those pics..

 

[treetx]

Sounds better than freezing your arse off up north

 

[vharrison]

They shoved me and the three other gringos from the cutter in a 10' John boat with ankle deep water in it, and an 8 hp motor!


Sounds like they had a blast despite the boat!

 

[Chisel Tooth]

Sounds like they were to drunk to care.

 

[GASoline71]

Sounds like they were to drunk to care.

Ahhh... Coasties are just Sailors at heart... LOL

Gary

 

[squisher]

Lol, drinking rum in a leaky boat! LMFAO, right on.

 

[GASoline71]

Wow... Jeff must be bored... Got another email with pics... When he's talkin' about the different colors, he is reffering to the flight deck jersey colors on the boat...

We've got yellow, red, blue and white. I guess I'd be brown then, but I think a "plane captain" in the Navy is different than one in Coast Guard. I talked to a guy who'd come over from the Navy, and he was telling us he was a plane captain on an F-18...as an E-4 or E-5. And this guy was a friggin rock. Dumber'n hell I tell ya. Out here, it's my plane. I give the plane to the pilots, and manage all the maintenance, inspections, QA's, maintenance release from grounding discreps, everything. I am the maintenance department out here. The helo, and the $1.5 mill support kit are my all my baby. I'm enjoying this trip because I get to run things my way. This is my first deployment as an E-6, and I'm enjoying that aspect of it too. When I talk, people actually listen. I've done this job before, as an E-5 out of Kodiak a few years ago when the E-6 on the trip had a melt-down and I took over. Man, I couldn't get shit done on that boat as an E-5. I was excluded from planning meetings, everyone second guessed my call and on it went. Here I say the sky is green, and half the boat agrees with me without even asking a question.

That bass trip was a hoot. It was the funniest thing ever when we got there, and there's these little ass POS boats that they want to cram us all in. I thought to myself, "yeah, this oughtta be good!" I added some pics. In one of them you can see the boat we took out. It's the blue one with the little canopy over it. They had five of us in that thing. And the fish in the pics are the average we caught that day. They didn't get much bigger than that.

I'm countin the days now. It's either 17 or 13 depending on where they drop us off at. But it's OK being underway. My mustache is so far out of regs it's stupid. I'm half way to a full-on fu-man-chu!

Later,
Jeff

AMT1 Jeff Breidenbach
Plane Captain 6514/CGC Mellon

"I am the Walrus...Coo-Coo-Ca-Choo!"



Gary

 

[GASoline71]

Forgot the pics!!!

Gary

 

[Chisel Tooth]

Hell they had no worries Gary they could see the shoreline. All someone had to say is save the rum and well there ya go. Thanks for keeping us up to speed Gary.

 

[GASoline71]

No problem Mike...

Jeff and I had been hit and miss with the emails there for awhile... but he finally got to send in some pics and tell me a little about what he's been up to.

Gary

 

[Chisel Tooth]

Cool I'm just glad we have you here to let us know he's alright, and things are going good.

 

[GASoline71]

Here's a couple Jeff sent me this weekend of him tryin' to catch seagulls on the flight deck... I'd be lyin' if said i've never done that too...

Gary