A Cod^t Guard flying boat brings a stricken seaman to a marine hospital. 



Aviation extends 

 a helping hand 



Aviation has greatly extended the 

 helping hand of the Coast Guard. Rescue 

 operations that were once restricted to 

 coastal waters because of the limited range 

 of earlier equipment, can now be carried 

 out on the ocean. Giant Marlin fiying 

 boats can go 1,500 miles from shore, land 

 on the ocean to pick up survivors of an 

 accident or someone from a ship who 

 needs medical attention ashore. 



Another type craft that has increased 



the Coast Guard's effectiveness as a res- 

 cue agency is the helicopter. The ability 

 of these aircraft to hover and to take off 

 and land straight up and down makes pos- 

 sible rescue operations in areas that are 

 inaccessible to more conventional types 

 of air and surface craft. 



The Coast Guard pioneered in the use 

 of helicopters and in November 1943 set 

 up a helicopter training base at the Coast 

 Guard Air Station at Floyd Bennett Field 

 in New York. A year later, 150 mechanics 

 and over 100 pilots had been graduated 

 from this special school. 



In 1945, a Coast Guard helicopter pen- 

 etrated the snow-covered wastes near 

 Goose Bay, Labrador, and brought out the 

 crew of a cracked-up Royal Canadian Air 

 Force plane. The next year a Belgian air- 



23 



