Avionics Electrical Technician Dan Boyd inspects a C-130 aircraft before it takes flight from the former McClellan Air Force Base.
Avionics Electrical Technicians Amanda Hansen and Dan Boyd man the cockpit of a C-130 aircraft during a training mission departing from the Coast Guard air station at McClellan.
A crew of Aviation Maintenance Technicians participates in a routine training operation over the San Francisco Bay.
Avionics Electrical Technicians John Hagerty and Dan Boyd run routine maintenance on their aircraft before departure.
A camera on the nose of the plane can zoom in on the contents of a boat from thousands of feet above ground, enabling flight crews to track drug traffickers and monitor the safety of maritime oil platforms, among other tasks.
Petty Officer Hansen was charged with navigating this flight, but Coast Guard members are trained with a multitude of skills, and men and women perform all of the same tasks.
The Coast Guard members at Air Station Sacramento are trained for search and rescue, but they also fly missions including marine environmental protection and federal law enforcement patrols combating drug smuggling.
From their hub at the former McClellan Air Force Base, this crew responds to disasters and emergencies from Canada to Baja.
Air Station Sacramento also provides transportation for the Pacific Strike Team, the Coast Guard’s oil spill prevention and containment team on the West Coast.
By day, these crewmembers inspect, maintain, troubleshoot and repair aircraft engines, power train systems and other aviation components, but when an emergency happens, they must also be prepared for nautical search and rescue.
In this operation, the crew drops messages and survival supplies to distressed watercraft.
“When I got out of ‘A’ School (job training), I wanted to do helicopters. But I just love these planes — they have a bathroom,” laughs Hansen. “I was six months pregnant, and when I couldn’t fit out of the windows to clean the plane was when I thought maybe I shouldn’t do this anymore. But I just love it.”
It’s all work for the interest of national security, but occasionally it can be fun: “Once we watched James Bond on the jumbotron of a tourist boat, and I saw monkeys in Costa Rica,” said Aviation Maintenance Technician Gregory Sykes
Photos: Ken James Captions: Christine Calvin
Wing Walker
Hitting the skies with the Coast Guard