Speaker 1: Hi, Jesse!
Hi, Strake!
You want to come me to learn about the US Coast Guard?
Speaker 2: We'd love to!
Speaker 1: Come on, let's go!
Hello!
Kai Nerhus: Hello.
Welcome to Coast Guard Station Fort Lauderdale.
I'm Kai Nerhus.
This is Cody Mehalic.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for inviting me today.
What are we going to be doing?
Kai Nerhus: We're going to be doing a training search and rescue mission, and we're going to release some sea turtles.
Cody here will take you guys and show you around.
Speaker 1: Terrific.
Thank you so much.
What is the Coast Guard?
Cody Mehalic: So the Coast Guard is one of the six branches of the military.
We are the oldest seagoing branch.
We mainly do search and rescue.
So where we save people's lives, sometimes to do a little bit of law enforcement; catch the bad guys.
But most importantly, it's mainly just the safety of Americans for us.
Speaker 1: And what type of rescues do you do?
Cody Mehalic: So people who are stranded on boats or maybe stuck in the water.
Speaker 1: So it's mostly sea rescues that you're working on?
Cody Mehalic: Yes.
Speaker 1: So if someone's stranded at sea, if their boat broke down, if someone's drowning or having a problem, they would call the Coast Guard.
Cody Mehalic: Yes.
We're normally one of the first people to get the call.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me about your uniform?
Cody Mehalic: This is the operational dress uniform.
This is our daily working uniform.
It's what most people wear every single day.
When we're going out, when we're on the boats.
Speaker 1: Are they generally blue in the Coast Guard?
Cody Mehalic: Yes.
Speaker 1: I'm almost in the right.
Cody Mehalic: We are matching, so... Speaker 1: That's terrific!
Cody Mehalic: I got the black boots; protect my feet.
I have my name right here.
This states that I'm in the US Coast Guard.
And then I have these they're called my crows.
This tells people what rank I am.
Speaker 1: What about your hat?
Cody Mehalic: So it says Coast Guard.
Some say what station you're at.
Speaker 1: What kind of jobs do you do in the Coast Guard?
Cody Mehalic: There's all sorts of jobs.
You can drive boats, you can fly planes, you can fight fires.
You can do all sorts of things.
Speaker 1: That sounds exciting.
Strake, come and join us.
Cody is going to teach us a really cool way that members of the US military show respect to each other.
Can you please tell us why people salute and how do you salute?
Cody Mehalic: Of course!
Salute is a way for all members of the military to show respect to people who are of higher rank than them and also the national flag.
It's quite easy.
You just bring your feet together like this.
Always use your right hand with a flat palm.
You bring it up, right to your hat.
And then once you get a salute back, it's when you can bring your hand right back down.
And it's as easy as that.
Speaker 1: Can we practice with you?
Cody Mehalic: Of course!
Speaker 1: Okay.
Ready, Strake?
Stand still.
KidVision kids, you can salute too!
Shiny will help us.
Ready?
One, two!
Hand up.
Hand down.
Great job, everyone!
Cody Mehalic: Follow me.
Speaker 1: I'm happy to.
Cody Mehalic: We always wear our life jackets on Coast Guard boats.
Speaker 1: Life jackets are buoyant.
They keep people afloat in the water.
They reduce drownings.
That is why they're mandatory on Coast Guard boats.
Cody Mehalic: So we're going to be working with Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.
They're going to be coming out with us too to help us put the turtles out in the ocean.
Speaker 1: It is so amazing that the Coast Guard saves both people and animals.
Like these sea turtles.
We are releasing the sea turtles into the ocean to make sure they are safe.
Speaker 5: So these sea turtles are new baby hatchlings.
So we're just releasing these guys to get them out into the ocean.
We will release a couple at a time.
They are two days old.
Speaker 1: Two days old?
Speaker 5: Two days old.
So they just hatched on the beaches of Boca.
This is a total of 119 loggerhead sea turtles.
Speaker 1: That's great.
You're going to be happy.
You're going to live a nice long life.
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Great.
So how do we release them?
Speaker 5: So we are going to release them down on the boat, in the water, right into the ocean.
Speaker 1: Great.
Well, let's take them out.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 1: KidVision kids, professionals like Sawyer and the Coast Guard are the only ones who should handle wildlife.
If you ever see sea turtles in the wild, leave them alone and never disturb a sea turtle nest.
Cody Mehalic: So we're going to be doing some training, practicing having a man in the water where we pick him up, and then we're going to be doing a tow on a broken vessel.
This boat's our 45-foot response boat.
It's what we use for all of our SAR missions.
Speaker 1: Wow.
These boats are so cool.
How many people work on that boat?
Are they called crew members?
Cody Mehalic: Yes.
We take four crew members out.
So we have one coxswain, who's the boat driver, an engineer who keeps it running, and then two crewmen who will help with everything else.
Speaker 1: They work the ropes.
Cody Mehalic: Exactly.
Speaker 1: We're ready now for the rescue mission.
Here he is!
We got him.
He is saved.
Hooray!
There it is.
That's the boat that needs our help.
Speaker 6: Look, you'll be primary.
Next look will be secondary.
You're going to be my comms, my safety.
Speaker 7: Two six from the three nine.
We're getting ready to break the tow.
Speaker 8: We're getting set up.
Report sides.
Let me know when everybody's on deck.
Speaker 7: Heads up on the boat.
Sir, hold on to the orange ball.
Speaker 1: Woo-hoo!
We got 'em!
Speaker 7: [inaudible 00:07:28].
Speaker 8: Raise that bar.
You guys, clear the deck.
Speaker 1: We had a very busy day.
We learned about the Coast Guard.
We learned how to salute.
We learned about wearing a life jacket.
We got to go out into the ocean and release turtles.
And then we came back and went out again to rescue someone who was in the water and learn how to pull a boat that is broken.
I'm happy that our KidVision family and friends got to experience some of the ways the Coast Guard keeps us safe.
We are grateful for everything the Coast Guard and the military does for our country every day.
Thank you for your service.
Thank you so much for showing us about what happens at the Fort Lauderdale station.
Cody Mehalic: Thank you so much for coming.
It's been an absolute pleasure having you guys here.
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