Sailors with Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25 evacuated a man from the Coast Guard cutter Polar Star, March 6, 2024, after the man began experiencing abdominal pains. (Ryan Graves/U.S. Coast Guard)
A Navy helicopter plucked an ailing crew member from the deck of the Coast Guard’s only heavy icebreaker in waters south of Guam.
The cutter Polar Star was about 100 miles south of Guam on Friday when a 43-year-old man onboard began experiencing severe abdominal pains, according to a Coast Guard news release Monday.
The ship was en route to Seattle, its homeport, following an annual trip to McMurdo Station for Operation Deep Freeze. The joint military mission resupplies U.S. research stations in Antarctica for the National Science Foundation.
A Navy MH-60S Seahawk helicopter rendezvoused with the Polar Star, which was rerouted close to the island by the Joint Rescue Sub-Center on Guam.
The patient was flown to U.S. Naval Hospital Guam that day in stable condition, according to the release.
No further information was available on his status, according to an email Wednesday from Chief Warrant Officer 2 Sara Muir, spokeswoman for Coast Guard Forces Micronesia/Sector Guam.
“This operation stands as a testament to the seamless collaboration and unparalleled skill of our U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy personnel,” sector commander Capt. Nick Simmons said in the release. “The swift and efficient evacuation of our crew members underlines our unwavering commitment to the health and safety of every service member.”
The Polar Star docked Monday for a port call at Yokosuka Naval Base, homeport of the U.S. 7th Fleet.
The visit is a first for the ship and the first time a Coast Guard icebreaker has stopped here since the cutter Healy came in 2004, according to U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Jeannie Shaye.
“The purpose of this visit is to strengthen our service relationship with a close Pacific ally that also operates an icebreaker in Antarctica, including the Japan Coast Guard and the Japan Maritime Self Defense Forces,” she said in a statement emailed Wednesday by Naval Forces Japan spokesman Sky Laron.
The 399-foot icebreaker, powered by six diesel and three gas turbine engines, is the only U.S. vessel capable of carving through polar ice, according to the Coast Guard.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bertholf arrives at Changi Naval Base in Singapore, Feb. 25, 2024. (Steven Strohmaier/U.S. Coast Guard)
Bertholf cutter visits India
The Coast Guard remained busy elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific in recent weeks.
The Bertholf, a Legend-class cutter based in Alameda, Calif., stopped in Singapore on Feb. 25, its first port call after 30 days at sea, according to a March 5 Coast Guard news release. The ship belongs to the 7th Fleet’s Destroyer Squadron 15 while in the region.
Bertholf moved on to a port call at Port Blair, India, the first U.S. cutter to do so, then joined the Indian coast guard for the Sea Defender exercise in the Andaman Sea, squadron spokesman Lt. j.g. Ronan Williams said by email Wednesday.
Before reaching India, the Bertholf visited Malaysia and joined the Singapore police coast guard, Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency, Japan coast guard and Australian Border Force for a variety of activities, Williams said.
The Bertholf in 2019 became the first Legend-class cutter to patrol the Indo-Pacific. Since then, five other cutters — the Midgett, Stratton, Waesche, Kimball and Munro — have made similar Indo-Pacific patrols as part of the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy and the Coast Guard’s Pacific Area Campaign Plan, Williams said.
