Rescue At Sea
By: Michael D. Sullivan

Harry Spirides. Born and raised on Tybee Island. A Benedictine Military Academy graduate. A degree from the College of Business at Florida State University. General Manager of the Ocean Plaza Beach Resort. And in early December 2002, Harry Spirides became the Coast Guard’s signature player in the rescue of 157 men and women from sure death aboard a sinking vessel in the Pacific Ocean.

He is an officer in charge of a tactical law enforcement team in Miami known as LEDET…law enforcement detachment. LEDETS operate on U.S. Navy warships using them as platforms to carry out missions that include counter terrorism, homeland security, counter drug trafficking, military maritime intercept operations, and at times search and rescue operations.

The Posse Comitatus Act precludes the Navy from taking law enforcement actions. However, as LTJG Spirides explains, the Navy can assist in law enforcement actions by being a carrier for Coast Guard teams with the blessing of the U.S. Congress.

That blessing placed LTJG Spirides on the USS Crommelin, a guided missile frigate patrolling shipping lanes in the east Pacific with a crew of 13 officers and 287 enlisted men on board. The Crommelin is capable of reaching speeds of 29 knots plus ( 33.4 miles per hour) with a daily mission of detecting and monitoring counter drug activities. On the evening of December 3rd, 2002, the warship sighted an Ecuadorian fishing vessel floundering in the Pacific hundreds of miles from home. It was described as "grossly overloaded."

LTJG Spirides managed the rescue from the Combat Information Center, the war fighting command area on the Crommelin. "I coordinated the efforts of the ship’s personnel attempting to stop the Don Ignacio F. from sinking," he says. After boarding the craft, his team determined it was lost and would not stay afloat. Also, the people on board were without food and water. There was nothing the Coast Guard rescue team could do to save it so LTJG Spirides ordered the evacuation of everybody to the Crommelin. That transfer was completed without injury to the occupants or the rescue team on board and back at the Crommelin.

" We were in the right place at the right time to save these people. We were glad to help. These people surely would have been lost at sea had we not been there," he reports.

With all the Ecuadorians safely transferred, the Don Ignacio F. was sunk as a hazard to navigation. He never thought the mission would fail as the Crommelin team was able to calculate how fast the water was rising in the fishing boat and figure how much time was there to pull off the rescue. It is a procedure they are trained to perform.

"I visited with them on board. They had three meals a day, showers, and a place to sleep. Spanish linguists told me that our guests were extremely thankful and happy to be alive," he remembers. And when they drove away in buses after they all got off the ship in Educador, many looked back at the ship waving and smiling.

"It really made me feel good about what we had done that day in the Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles from South America," he reflects.

A day in the life of LTJG Harry Spirides that started years before at Coast Guard Station Tybee Island. The U.S.S. Crommelin is home ported at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The civilian side of Harry’s life on Tybee is full as he serves on the Board of Directors of the Tourism Council and the Savannah Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. He is also on the Board of the State Authority that runs the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center on Hutchinson Island.

Busy man…our local guy in action. Congratulations LTJG Spirides on a job well done.


 

Marine Medicines
by Lianne Pierrard

The next time anyone throws trash out of their car or washes a paint can out in the driveway, the ultimate effects of these actions need to be thought about. Most trash and pollutants will eventually end up in the oceans, injuring or killing both plants and animals. Humans may be affected by these organisms’ injuries as well, as they may hold the key to the cure for numerous human diseases.

Most people know about the importance of the rainforest when it comes to medicine but many still do not realize the incredible pharmacological possibilities the oceans hide. Scientists today are discovering new medicines from marine plants and animals daily. Human produced pollution could be responsible for killing the one organism that holds the key to the cure for cancer or even AIDS. In fact, the drug AZT that is used to treat patients with the AIDS virus was derived from a sea sponge. Sponges are also used in drugs for treating asthma and cancer. Ever had stitches? Well, they might have been made from the same material that makes up crab and lobster shells. Scientists have found a way to make a long lasting thread from the material called chitin. Chitin-based thread does not cause infection or sores and is very useful for sewing up wounds inside the body.

The toadfish, which is often caught by local fishermen, may not look like it has much to offer but may in fact prove invaluable to medicine. The male toadfish has the fastest twitch muscles of any animal. It is able to vibrate its swim bladder muscles 200 times per second! This is interesting to scientists who study human muscle disorders. Cardiomyopathy is a condition where the heart loses the ability to relax normally and therefore cannot pump blood, as it should. It has been hypothesized that there is a molecule that allows the toadfishes’ swim bladder muscle to relax so quickly. It is hopeful that this molecule can be isolated and administered to patients with cardiomyopathy. Toadfish also have an amazing ability to regenerate their nervous system! It has been discovered that a toadfishes’ nerves will grow back completely, unlike the human spinal cord which when cut, will fail to regenerate. Scientists hope that someday this will lead to advances in prosthetic devices for people with central nerve damage.

Those studying blood diseases have found that the deadly cone snail from Fiji and the horseshoe crab may hold the secrets of blood clotting disorders. The same enzyme that humans use for blood clotting is necessary for creating the deadly toxin the cone snail uses to paralyze its prey. The fuel for both processes is vitamin K. Patients with hemophilia are treated with Factor IX which is the missing clotting agent in their blood which requires vitamin K for synthesis. Horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) are also used in the field of hematology to test vaccines and injected pharmaceutical products for bacteria. If there are bacteria present, the horseshoe crab blood will coagulate (clot). Previously, rabbits were used for this test but it was very slow and took the life of the rabbit. The Limulus Test, as it is known, takes 45 minutes and no animals are harmed. This test is also being looked at by NASA to create a way to insure that astronauts are completely sterilized and do not release or bring back any foreign bacteria when on a mission.

The amazing animals mentioned in this article are only a small fraction of those already identified as having medical uses, and there are many more just waiting to be discovered. This is one important reason why everyone needs to take care of the Earth and all the organisms on it. Most people unknowingly owe their health to these organisms and owe it to future generations to have the chance to discover additional cures and treatments these plants and animals may possess.


 

George Carlin’s view on aging:

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re kids? If you’re less than 10 years old, you’re so excited about aging that you think in fractions. "How old are you?" "I’m four and a half!"

You’re never thirty-six and a half. You’re four and a half, going on five!

That’s the key. You get into your teens, now they can’t hold you back.

You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

"How old are you?"

"I’m gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you’re gonna be 16!

And then the greatest day of your life . . . you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . . . YOU BECOME 21. . . YES!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk. He TURNED, we had to throw him out. There’s no fun now, you’re

just a sour-dumpling. What’s wrong? What’s changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you’re PUSHING 40.

Whoa! Put on the brakes, it’s all slipping away.

Before you know it, you REACH 50 . . . and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn’t think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You’ve built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it’s a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday! You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime.

And it doesn’t end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I was JUST 92." Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I’m 100 and a half!"

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!
 

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him/her.

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil’s workshop." And the devil’s name is Alzheimer’s.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on.

The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it’s family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don’t take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

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