Coasties in Space Episode 223

About this episode

This week’s Coast Guard aviation stories come courtesy of a special guest co-host: Deuce, a newly retired Coast Guard aviator (and, briefly, the service’s senior space attorney). Sticks and Bago hold down the fort while Deuce walks through the Coast Guard’s oddball, everything-service mission set — including how commercial space launches are about to become a Coast Guard headache. From there it’s classic So There I Was territory: sleeping inside a helicopter to escape a snoring ops officer, a Katrina-era rescue that saved six sailors drifting toward Morocco, and the almost-unbelievable ditching of a Pan Am Clipper next to the Cutter Pontchartrain. Deuce also breaks down why the Coast Guard is quietly building out a drone rating for search and rescue. Big thanks to DC Artworks for sponsoring the show — go check out dcartworks.net for genuinely one-of-a-kind aviation art.