Goochland native Ramon Fraga, above, works aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro. Below, a view of the scene as crew members aid one survivor from the Alaska Ranger.

Fraga saves lives in Alaskan waters
BY BRAD FRANKLIN

May 06, 2008

‘03 GHS grad tells of rescue efforts aboard Munro

Ramon Fraga has trained for it. He has anticipated it. And he has welcomed it. But when the alarms began to sound recently, he was thankful that he was able to help.

Fraga, 23, is a technician third-class aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro. There, he serves as an operation specialist who is part 9-1-1 operator, part air-traffic controller.

Not only is he responsible for working radar and tracking aircraft and vessels but he is also responsible for all intelligence and cryptographic equipment on board. He also helps with the navigation of the Munro, its operations, and all message traffic.

All of that training was put to the test just after 3 a.m. on Easter morning, when the Munro received a mayday from the fishing vessel Alaska Ranger.

The boat, roughly 120 miles west of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, ran into problems on its way to mackerel fishing in the Aleutian Islands. Dutch Harbor is about 800 miles southwest of Anchorage and about 1,700 mile northwest of Seattle, the boat’s home port.

The Alaska Ranger began to sink after reporting that it had lost control of its rudder. The Munro, which made speed immediately, was able to recover 46 of the vessel’s 47 crewmembers. All but four of those rescued lived.

Having been in the Coast Guard since September 2005, Fraga, a 2003 graduate of Goochland High School, was assigned to the Munro two years ago. Since then, he has seen a lot. But his experience aboard the Munro on Easter Sunday was one he’ll never forget.

“We had just left Kodiak a week before the actual case started,” he recalled. About to get off of watch duty in an hour, Fraga said it was just a regular night like any other.

“We were finishing up our paperwork before the watch relief came when we heard a mayday,” he said. “We immediately started jumping into place, doing everything that we have been training for for the past two years.”

Even though he and his fellow officers couldn’t believe what was happening, the Coast Guard’s motto, ‘Semper Paratus” or “always ready,” stood out to him.

“We started to get all of the information from the radios and from the Alaskan Ranger, what their position and nature of the distress was, how many people were on board, the description of their vessel,” Fraga said. “They said they were taking on water and couldn’t stop the flooding. And they said they were going to abandon ship as fast as they could.”

At the same time, the crew of the Munro had already plotted the vessel’s positions and notified the proper chain of command.

“We also started drafting an uncorrelated marine information broadcast to the public and mariners to see if anyone was in the area to help,” Fraga said.

In a matter of minutes, the Munro had gathered the information, turned, and made its way toward the Alaska Ranger.

“It was amazing how well and how fast we got down to business,” Fraga recalled.

Once the Munro was close enough, it launched its helicopter and, with the help of the Alaska Ranger’s sister vessel, the Alaska Warrior, was able to save all but five of the ship’s crew members.

Having then come aboard the Munro, Fraga said it took a while for the Alaska Ranger’s crew to feel comfortable.

“The whole time, there was a person assigned to each crew man to keep them company and try to help them cope with all the trauma that they had been through,” he said. “It was kind of a buddy-buddy situation, where we had to give them special attention by talking and by physical contact as well, like pats on the back.”

The survivors stayed on board for several days and by the end, Fraga said they were able to become friends.

“It must have truly been a hard ordeal because of the sheer terror and despair that they must have felt,” he said. “But thank God for helping up us get there in time to save some lives and actually make a difference in this world.”

Looking back, Fraga said he was just thankful to have the opportunity to help those who desperately needed it.

“This is why a lot of people join the Coast Guard and the armed forces,” he said. “We just want to be able to do things like this.”

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