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2016 Tribute to the Seventh Coast Guard District Recap

This evening served as the 23rd annual event and recognized the members from Coast Guard Sector San Juan.
2016 D7
November 18, 2016

The Coast Guard Foundation and its supporters gathered on November 16, 2016, to honor and celebrate the achievements of those serving in the Coast Guard’s Seventh District - a district which encompasses an area of 1.8 million square miles and shares operational borders with 34 foreign nations and territories.

This evening served as the 23rd annual event and recognized the members from Coast Guard Sector San Juan who received the Coast Guard Foundation Award for rescuing 511 people aboard ferry vessel the Caribbean Fantasy after its engine caught fire.

“In my 25 years associated with the Coast Guard, I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder or more thankful to be associated with the Coast Guard as that day in August when this team came together,” said Captain Robert Warren, Commander of Sector San Juan.

The events that unfolded on August 17 mark the largest Mass Rescue Operation in U.S. waters in 60 years, with Sector San Juan leading the rescue with port and interagency partners. Over the course of several hours, men, women and children embarked life rafts or made a harrowing descent down the vessel’s steep Marine Evacuation Slide to be met by Coast Guard men and women who pulled them to safety.

The Coast Guard Foundation and its supporters gathered on November 16, 2016, to honor and celebrate the achievements of those serving in the Coast Guard’s Seventh District - a district which encompasses an area of 1.8 million square miles and shares operational borders with 34 foreign nations and territories.

This evening served as the 23rd annual event and recognized the members from Coast Guard Sector San Juan who received the Coast Guard Foundation Award for rescuing 511 people aboard ferry vessel the Caribbean Fantasy after its engine caught fire.

“In my 25 years associated with the Coast Guard, I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder or more thankful to be associated with the Coast Guard as that day in August when this team came together,” said Captain Robert Warren, Commander of Sector San Juan.

The events that unfolded on August 17 mark the largest Mass Rescue Operation in U.S. waters in 60 years, with Sector San Juan leading the rescue with port and interagency partners. Over the course of several hours, men, women and children embarked life rafts or made a harrowing descent down the vessel’s steep Marine Evacuation Slide to be met by Coast Guard men and women who pulled them to safety.

Commander of the Seventh District Rear Admiral Scott Buschman gave the evening’s opening remarks thanking the Coast Guard Foundation and its supporters for supporting the district. “As I go around the seventh Coast Guard district, I see first hand the impact of your generosity, and I can tell you it makes a difference to our Coast Guard men and women, and it makes a difference to their families.”

Author, motivational speaker and former NFL football player Reggie Rivers served as the evening’s MC, with Vice Admiral Karl Schultz, Commander of the Coast Guard Atlantic Area, the evening’s keynote speaker.

“I’ve watched the Foundation up close and personal, and it became very personal to me in 2010 when we lost one of my own," he said, recalling the Foundation's support after the death of Senior Chief Terrell Horne III, when Schultz was Commander of eleventh Coast Guard district. “The Foundation stepped up, and I watched the crew heal with the help of the Foundation.”

Schultz also recognized and thanked president of the Foundation Anne Brengle - who is retiring in December - for her 9 years of service to the Coast Guard community. The Foundation’s Board of Directors and Trustees announced on November 16 that Susan P. Ludwig, the Coast Guard Foundation’s current Director of Regional Philanthropy, Northeast, will assume the duties of President of the Coast Guard Foundation at the beginning of 2017.

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  • 2016 D7
  • 2016 D7

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