The First Time I Saw a Baby Born
John Fowler 04-08-07
In July 1994, I was stationed on the USCGC Chase out of Long Beach, CA. We were scheduled for patrol to Alaska. This would have been my last patrol on the Chase, and I didn't want to go to Alaska again. I've been there 8 times already. Oh well, I saluted and carried on.
As time went by we were getting closer and closer to the patrol date. Since my job is in communications, I received word that our patrol orders were changed from Alaska to Haiti. I thought, wow.... this is a great way to end a tour on board the Chase. We set sail in August and headed south. Our first stop was the Pacific side of the Panama Canal. We picked up a few shipmates and supplies. After we crossed the Panama Canal, our next stop was Key West, FL. We stayed there for 4 days, then headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico for a 3 day port call. So far my last patrol on the Chase has been great. A lot of sight seeing and great port calls. Once we left PR, things sort of changed.
In radio, where I worked, we had 3 watch standers to keep up w/ the heavy volume of message traffic. Normally we had 1 or 2 watch standers, but things were different. The Chase was to lead U.S. forces into Port-Au-Prince Harbor, Haiti. We provided off shore support while the Marines landed and helped restore order in a country that was being overtaken by it's citizens. This was the beginning of Operation Uphold Democracy, which began on Sept. 11, 1994. The Chase was anchored in the Harbor for 30 days. Once we were relieved by another Coast Guard Cutter, we continued w/ our patrol and headed back home. During that time, we picked up 130 Haitian and 120 Cuban, all of them migrants.
Besides the extra hours in Radio, I was also one of the Law Enforcement Officers on board. I had the task of searching everyone that came on board. I was to confiscate anything and everything the migrants brought on board. We did this because we did not want over 200 migrants rioting on board our ship. People fled their homes w/ what little they could wear or put in their pockets. Some of their “boats” were made out of their own houses. I confiscated anything form money, to family pictures, to religious items, to weapons, even drugs. It was a nasty and depressing job.
Anyway, one of the women was taken to the helicopter hanger along w/ our corpsman. She was kept away from the rest of the migrant population because of health reasons. I heard her screaming and moaning. I thought she was just sick and was going to die. I continued my job of searching migrants. Later that night we secured from migrant ops, I walked up to the hanger and watched this lady w/ a big belly scream. It seemed like hours, but it was only about 20 minutes. She gave birth right there in the hanger. One minute I’m frisking migrants and confiscating their possessions, the next minute I’m watching a female migrant give birth. I was sweaty, smelly, tired, dirty, emotionally drained, and about ready to faint.
These people left their country to come to America. They weren’t passengers on a ship for a stop at Ellis Island, they didn’t run across the boarder in the middle of the night. These people took apart the house they lived in to and tried to sail over 100 miles through shark infested waters w/ little to no food or water in over crowded “boats”, just for a taste of freedom and opportunity in America. It didn’t matter what the risk was, they wanted to be in America. It says a lot about how well we have it and how much we take for granted.
