I always wondered why a Big Sandy, Montana prairie boy, would choose the Nation Coast Guard.
"I think it was mostly because our family would always vacation out in Oregon. I knew I wanted to have a job working on the ocean. I was originally looking at the Navy and was about to sign up for the Navy before I saw a pamphlet for the Coast Guard. The closest recruiter was in Boise, Idaho, so in my Senior year, they had to fly me down to Boise. I remember four times because I spent the whole summer just flying back to Boise over and over. I liked the fact that it was a smaller branch. I just love how small it is. And it doesn't feel like a military branch.
"My first unit in the Coast Guard was a 210-foot-long boat, and I did drug interdiction. So it's funny because I didn't know the Coast Guard did drug interdiction. When you think of the Coast Guard, you just think of search and rescue, going out on the waves, and stuff like that." He was stationed out of Astoria, Oregon. He would be gone for two or three months as they patrolled down to Mexico, South America, and Mexico. They would hang out about 300 miles off the coast and wait for drugs. "That was a fun job. It's not what I had in mind when I first joined the Coast Guard, but I got to see a lot of cool stuff. I got to go to Mexico. I got to do some traveling, which I wanted to do."
"I was called a pursuit member. So basically, on this 210-foot-long boat. We have two smaller boats about 16 feet and are on both sides of the boat, and we have cranes that lift and lower them into the water, and we get on those small boats to chase the drug smuggling boats because the drug smuggling boats are way faster. Yeah, way faster," The smaller, faster boats would chase after the drug smuggling boats until they stopped. If they didn't stop, they would fire at the engines. "We didn't get to do that very often. Usually, people would stop." They would catch tons and tons of cocaine. "That's all I saw."
He is on a multi-mission unit now. "If you're ever out on the Columbia River, towards the ocean, you see like buoys and lights on the side of the river to let the ships know where to go. Our job is to maintain those, so we climb the towers, switch out lights, and switch up buoys, but we also do search and rescue. So if we're ever close enough to somebody who needs help, we are the first response."
Have you ever saved someone's life? "There was a sailing boat. I was thinking we got to go there on the small boats. I got to be the rescue swimmer for that. And we just jumped off the boat, headed towards the sinking ship, and got people on the boat. It felt good. It was a good one. Yeah, it was the only search and rescue I've had on the Coast Guard since I've been in."
Did you know how to swim? "I did swim team here, and yeah, I did swim team for Fort Benton before Big Sandy had their own team. I love to swim. You know, I love the ocean. So I said, I'm going to go find a job to do both."
The Coast Guard is different than any other branch of the military. In the other branches, you only do one job. With the Coast Guard, you can have a specific job, right now, it might be rescued, but you can get a different job when you get sent to a different unit. Each unit has different missions. Right now, Matthew's title is Telegrapher Petty Officer 3rd Class. He originally signed up for six years. He will have served those six years in one month, but he plans on signing on for another four years, at least for now.
"Usually, you get transferred to a completely different spot every three years. I got North Carolina. I was trying to get Hawaii, but everyone wants Hawaii, so you'll rarely get that unless you're super lucky. I've heard a lot of good things from North Carolina. I'm excited."
"What I'm most proud of was on my last trip on the 210-foot boat down in Mexico. We set a record for the most drugs caught on a commercial fishing vessel. It was like, I think it was like three tons of cocaine. It was cool to be part of it."
It is such a different life from Big Sandy. Matthew would love to talk to any kids interested in the Coast Guard. "It's a great program, and I'd recommend it to anybody. Honestly, I didn't even know the Coast Guard existed until I was 16. I had no idea the Coast Guard existed. And it's funny because when I first joined the Coast Guard, I was getting people congratulating me on joining the National Guard. After all, I don't think other people realize that Coast Guard existed either."
Matthew and his wife live in Astoria, Oregon, which they love. But they love coming to Big Sandy too. It's different worlds and different adventures.
The following was taken from the United States Coast Guard online information. "USCG was established in 1790 by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton as the Revenue Marine Service. It later became the Revenue Cutter Service and, in 1915, was combined with the U.S. Lifesaving Service (formed in 1878) to become the Coast Guard. Congress authorized the construction of ten vessels to enforce federal tariff and trade laws and to prevent smuggling."
"A coast guard may also be responsible for the maintenance of lighthouses, buoys, and other navigational aids and for administering emergency aid to merchant seamen and to victims of natural disasters, such as floods and hurricanes. In some countries, coast guard duties include icebreaking in inland waterways and the collection and dissemination of meteorological data pertaining to floods, hurricanes, and storms. The International Ice Patrol, operated by the U.S. Coast Guard, maintains surveillance of icebergs in the North Atlantic shipping lanes."
