easterneagle87 Posted January 22, 2018 Share #1 Posted January 22, 2018 Got this patch in a group of Navy patches. Squadron ID? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ocsfollowme Posted January 22, 2018 Share #2 Posted January 22, 2018 Looks like a search and rescue unit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvage Sailor Posted January 22, 2018 Share #3 Posted January 22, 2018 Coast Guard Medium Endurance Cutter USCGC VIGILANT (WMEC-617) Port Canaveral, Florida Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvage Sailor Posted January 22, 2018 Share #4 Posted January 22, 2018 Interesting story too..... "THE VIGILANT INCIDENT" On November 23, 1970, Simonas "Simas" Kudirka, a Soviet seaman of Lithuanian nationality, leapt from the 400-foot (120 m) mother ship Sovetskaya Litva, anchored in American waters (near Aquinnah, Massachusetts on Martha's Vineyard Island), aboard the Vigilant, sailing from New Bedford. The Soviets accused Kudirka of theft of 3,000 rubles from the ship's safe. Ten hours passed. After attempts to get the U.S. State Department to provide guidance failed, Rear Admiral William B. Ellis, commander of the First Coast Guard District, ordered Commander Ralph E. Eustis to permit a KGB detachment to board the Vigilant to return Kudirka to the Soviet ship. This led to a change in asylum policy by the U.S. Coast Guard. Admiral Ellis and his chief of staff were given administrative punishment under Article 15 of the UCMJ. Commander Eustis was given a non-punitive letter of reprimand and assigned to shore duty. Kudirka was tried for treason by the Soviet Union and given a ten-year sentence in the Gulag. Subsequent investigations revealed that Kudirka could claim American citizenship through his mother and was allowed to come to the United States in 1974. An award-winning book detailing the incident, Day of Shame, by Algis Ruksenas, was published in 1973 (David McKay Publishers, New York). The book helped spur further investigations into the incident that eventually led to Kudirka's release by the Soviets. It remains part of the reading curriculum in the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. The incident was portrayed in a 1978 television movie, The Defection of Simas Kudirka, with Alan Arkin playing Kudirka and Donald Pleasence playing the captain of the Soviet ship Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easterneagle87 Posted January 22, 2018 Author Share #5 Posted January 22, 2018 thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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