The Swedish Coast Guard in exercise with the US Coast Guard

The Swedish Coast Guard regularly perform exercises with other countries, but this was the first time in a long while that an American vessel from the US Coast Guard participated. The USCG Hamilton was delivered to the US Coast Guard in 2014, and her port of origin is Joint Base Charleston in North Charleston, South Carolina.
- Apart from the content of the various exercises, this has been an excellent opportunity of exchanging experiences. There is a lot we can learn from each other says Thomas Eriksson, from the Swedish Coast Guard, who has taken part of the planning of the exercise.

During the exercises on the Sunday and the Monday fire simulation, emergency towing and maritime rescue was practiced. During the part of the exercise focused on maritime rescue the Swedish Maritime Authority and the JRCC (Joint Rescue Coordination Centre) participated with one of their helicopters. The scope of the exercise was a general alert from the maritime rescue services that a fishing boat had sunk and three people were missing. Two people (life-size dummies) were found with other objects in the water, and the two persons/dummies were taken to the KBV 003 where a team of medics from USCG Hamilton awaited them to take care of fake wounds and injuries inflicted on the “fishermen” during the accident. Thereafter three staff were taken out to sea in order for the helicopter to practice rescuing them from the water, transferring them and lowering them onto the deck of the KBV 003.

- If I summarize the days they have been really good. We had a shorter start-up period than planned as the USCG Hamilton was delayed by a storm in Florida, so we have had to shift some of the actions scheduled during the exercise in order to get good set-up of the exercise, and also show our US colleagues what the Swedish Coast Guard work consists of. As one of our officers said; we are very similar to a Swiss army knife with many functions, says Thomas Eriksson.