Alaska's Very Own Guardian

By Petty Officer 3rd Class Levi Read

The wind was howling and blowing at speeds of up to 60 knots. The sea was rumbling and slapping against a black hulled vessel. The wind sprayed ocean water along with rain into the faces of the crew aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Woodrush, a 180-foot sea-going buoy tender. The crew was staring into the face of a storm because that's what Guardians do.

These Guardians were responding to a 'mayday' call. A boat was taking on water somewhere in Sitka Sound, Alaska. The Coast Guard had lost communication with the caller so the crew stared into the vast darkness fighting the stinging spray they felt upon their faces. For one of the crewmen, Seaman Ricky Johanson, that night aboard the Woodrush was just the beginning of his Coast Guard career and that night left a definite impression.

"I remember standing amidships on the boat deck staring into the darkness searching for anything in distress with my elbow hanging over the edge. I was approximately 15 feet above the water line when the ship rolled off one of the waves and as the ship rolled I could have reached down and touched the water," said Boatswain Mate 1st Class Ricky Johanson, 1st Lieutenant at Coast Guard Station Juneau, 21 years later.

The Woodrush's crew searched that entire stormy night and never found the distressed boat. Although during the search, at approximately midnight, a life raft was found and a rescue swimmer was deployed into the water to investigate the raft.

"I can still remember the anticipation of watching the swimmer swim to the raft and the empty disheartening feeling I felt as the swimmer shook his head notifying the rest of the crew of negative findings," said Johanson.

Johanson has served his entire 21-year Coast Guard career in Alaska. Johanson is a native Alaskan by birth and by heart. He was born in Juneau and raised in Hoonah, a small native village approximately 40 miles southwest of his birthplace. He is a member of the Tlingit Tribe.

On July 5, 1987 Ricky Johanson signed his enlistment papers and officially entered the United States Coast Guard. He was one of the last recruits who signed up in Juneau before the recruiting office moved to Anchorage. He wanted his first assignment to be aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Basswood homeported in Guam. Since that didn't work out, he decided to come home to Alaska straight out of boot camp and now the rest is history.

He has been involved in hundreds of search and rescue cases and various other missions in and around Alaskan waters. Although Johanson was serving in Alaska during the time of arguably the biggest and most devastating marine casualty in Alaskan history, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, he did not play a significant role in the clean up efforts because the Woodrush had just arrived in Bellingham, Wash., for a dry-dock and repair period.

During his time aboard the Woodrush from 1987-1990 he responded to the 1989 Cape Decision Lighthouse fire that damaged the tram dock, boat house, hoist house, paint shed and helipad. The crew of the Woodrush transported firefighters and other rescue volunteers from the nearby town of Petersburg and helped in rigging fire fighting equipment. The lighthouse and surrounding area has since been repaired and is still in operation.

After his stint aboard the Woodrush, Johanson transferred to Station Ketchikan where he advanced to boatswain mate 3rd class. He served in Ketchikan from 1990-1991. He was involved in a search and rescue case in Clarence Strait where sea cucumber divers resurfaced after a diving excursion and found their fishing vessel, Bandito, stuck in heavy seas and taking on water. The divers called for help and Station Ketchikan responded in their 41- foot Utility Boat and started towing the Bandito.

The shortest route to safety was to cross Clarence Strait heading west. The problem was that the storm was coming from the north and crossing the strait would have put the rescuers in a perilous position being beam to, to the seas. The decision was made to follow the Tug Venture and its fuel barges up through Clarence Strait using the barges as a shield from the weather. The storm was strong enough to carry breaking waves clear over the barges and onto the bow of the 41-foot rescue boat. The rescue took approximately 11 hours to complete.

His next assigned unit was Air Station Sitka as a boatswain mate. This was described by Johanson as being forgotten by the Coast Guard detailer. Apparently other boatswain mate 3rd classes stationed in Ketchikan were receiving orders but not Johanson. He called his detailer and the only billet available was a position at Air Station Sitka. He served there from 1991-1994.

His main job at the air station was to drive the practice boat for the helicopters during rescue exercises.

After his time at Air Station Sitka, Johanson says he was forgotten by the detailer again and this time was given the choice to serve time in the Lower 48 or to work at the Integrated Support Command Kodiak firehouse. He chose Kodiak and was stationed there as a boatswain mate 2nd class from 1994-1998. During his time at the firehouse, he was involved in fighting a major fire that broke out at the Star of Kodiak cannery. The cannery is housed inside a beached ship. The April 4, 1997 fire resulted in several ammonia releases estimated at 100 pounds each. Firefighters including Johanson fought the fire for approximately 18 hours.

"At this point I chose to stay in Alaska and serve at the fire station in Kodiak because it kept me and my family in Alaska," said Johanson. "I wanted my kids to go to school and finish school in Alaska."

Johanson said he hasn't had a problem with staying in Alaska because he thinks most other Coast Guardsmen don't want to come to Alaska and the detailers know he likes it up here and wants to stay up here. In fact he always mentioned on his dream sheet that he was from Alaska and didn't mind the gloomy weather or the small remote towns.

After his tour in Kodiak he was stationed in Juneau at the small boat station from 1998-2002. Here he qualified as a boat coxswain, on the 41-foot Utility Boat, 47-foot Motor Lifeboat and the 25-foot Response Boat Small. One of his biggest cases as a qualified coxswain was in response to the cruise ship Spirit of '98 grounding in Tracy Arm, approximately 40 miles southeast of Juneau. The cruise ship had hit a submerged object and began to take on water uncontrollably. The cruise ship's 93 passengers were evacuated and Air Station Sitka supplied six dewatering pumps but the pumps were not able to reach a void beneath the crew's quarters and in spaces aft of the engine room.

The small boat crew rigged a P-1 pump into a thru-hull fitting that Machinery Technician 2nd Class Ryan Savage discovered during the inspection of the vessel after Johanson noticed the cruise ship was taking on more water than the pumps could keep up with.

Johanson said upon arriving in Tracy Arm he noticed an accommodation ladder hanging from the cruise ship that was approximately a foot above the water. He noticed later that the bottom step of the ladder was underneath the water. This told him that even though the crew of the Spirit of '98 thought the flooding was under control, it was not. They needed to investigate and inspect the cruise ship to find where the flooding was coming from. Johanson and his crew were on scene with the Spirit of '98 for 36 hours. Johanson received the Coast Guard Commendation Medal, awarded to those who distinguish themselves by heroic or meritorious achievement or service, for his involvement in this case.

After four years in Juneau, he transferred back to an Aids-to-Navigation vessel homeported in Cordova. He was aboard Coast Guard Cutter Sycamore, a 225-foot sea-going buoy tender, from 2002-2005. Johanson said his time aboard the Sycamore was fairly quiet in terms of search and rescue operations. Although he did have a frightening experience while aboard the Sycamore. The Sycamore, while transiting through Snow Pass, between Petersburg and Wrangell, was struck by the wooden hulled vessel Renigad. He said that the crew of the Sycamore lowered their small boats to assist the damaged vessel. The Sycamore only received minor dents and scratches on its hull near the Coast Guard stripe.

After his tour aboard the Sycamore, he returned to Station Juneau where he is currently serving. During this tour in Juneau he has responded to several more cruise ship groundings, including the Empress of the North in 2007 and the Spirit of Glacier Bay in July 2008. During the Spirit of Glacier Bay rescue, the rescue crew, led by Johanson, tossed a line across to the vessel and held the cruise ship's bow steady as the tide came up. A strong current coming from a nearby river made the refloating of the cruise ship a dangerous operation. Had the bow been caught in the current the cruise ship could have been pushed into a nearby glacier.

Johanson is scheduled to be in Juneau until summer 2010. He is currently a petty officer first class and has plans of advancing to chief petty officer prior to transferring or retiring. Either way he wants the trend of serving in Alaska to continue and plans on retiring in Alaska.

"I have a good understanding of the area, and I understand the resources available," Said Johanson. "I have a lot of experiences to draw from during my service here in Alaska because until I returned to Station Juneau I had never done the same job twice."

He thinks the aids-to-navigation parts of his career have been the most rewarding because he has worked on aids in areas ranging from Dixon Entrance north covering all of Southeast Alaska, Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet in South Central Alaska and Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Chain. "We accomplished a variety of things from fixing buoys, building and fixing shore-aid towers and still participating in other Coast Guard missions like search and rescue," said Johanson.

"There is a certain satisfaction in every job in the Coast Guard but with aids-to-navigation you are more proactive and can visually see work accomplished but with search and rescue there is a lot of waiting for something to happen," explained Johanson.

"The best thing about my career would have to be the relationships I have been able to have with my shipmates," said Johanson. He said he doesn't run into many of his old shipmates because he has stayed here in Alaska and they have moved on usually to the Lower 48. But when he does, it has been fun to rehash the old memories.

"We built great relationships with each other because it was routine to work 12 to 16 hour days and we suffered through it together," said Johanson.

"I live and work in the most beautiful place on earth. I probably take it for granted, even though it often provides awe inspiring moments, because I grew up here and have lived here all my life," said Johanson. "The thing that gets my attention is the constant reminders of how huge Alaska is because of the transit times from one place to another it can take hours or even days."

The most important thing that has happened to him from his time with the Coast Guard is the understanding he has provided to the Tlingit Tribe and the public in general about what the Coast Guard is and what it represents.

Johanson explained that even though his family and friends in Hoonah didn't have much knowledge about the Coast Guard they still supported his choice in serving, but now that one of their own has spent the last 20 years with the Coast Guard they have a better understanding of who we are as Guardians.

© AlaskaReport.com All Rights Reserved.

Recommend this page to a friend