CWO3 Bride enlisted in the Coast Guard in MAY88, and matriculated from QM "A" school in JUN89. Over the course of his impressive career, he sailed on the following ships: ESCAPE, PLANETREE, HAMILTON, BOUTWELL, HEALY, MELLON, also completing the Hero trifecta - JARVIS, MIDGETT, and MUNRO. He is a Polar Bear, Golden Dragon, Ancient Shellback (emphasis on Ancient), Golden Shellback, and a member of The Order of the Ditch. He has stood more watches, conducted more drills, made more rounds about the deck, caught more fish, reduced more stars, determined more gyro errors, laid down more fixes (on paper charts), trained more pollywogs, and told more lies than he can remember. He still loves SAT Pizza Nights, morale nights, swim calls, fish calls, and mid- patrol breaks. He does all of his Christmas Shopping in the Ships Store. He has a bucket of prop wash in his stateroom. He combs his hair (what remains) with relative bearing grease. He has the keys to the sea chest and he shot Charlie Noble. He speaks in Sea Shanties.

He is under orders to report to POLAR STAR, where he will continue to accrue sea time and sea stories. This was the first time in my career that I had the honor to present such a prestigious award. He was given a Master Cutterman Certificate with a Challenge Coin from each ship he has sailed in, along with congratulatory letters/coins from the MCPOCG and COMDT. I am honored to call him shipmate, and I have more than a few sea stories of my own, in which he plays a central role.

JFK once famously said, "It is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins, the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean, And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came." We are grateful that BOSUN was always willing to go back to sail the seas in service to the Coast Guard, despite the personal sacrifices it required. I would wager several months of Sea Pay and FSA that CWO3 Bride has a higher percentage of salt in his veins than that of most sailors.

by Mark Cawthorn