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Orleans, Mass., radioed that the Cuban gun-boat was approaching. Moments before the Jocelyn-C’s transmitter went silent, the captain reported, “They're lowering their guns on us.” As the American boat and the Cuban craft traveled the 140 miles from the point of the reported boarding to La Isabela, Cuba, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter STEADFAST watched off shore. The cutter remained outside Cuba’s three mile limit until it was later notified that the seized American vessel and its crew had been released. A spokesman for the State Department In Washington, D. C. was reported to have commented that the Cubans must have thought they had captured another "Pueblo”.
Fireman Apprentice Wood, son of Mr. and Mn. Charles B. Wood formerly of Flint Hill, now of Blacksburg, was bom in Warren County Hospital on April 21, 1960. He lived with his parepts and two older sisters, Amenta and Ruth, in Flint Hill until he reached the age of three. His most vivid recollection of life in Flint Hill is of going to a Fireman’s Carnival, getting separated from his parents, and “being lost in a sea of people!’’ Shortly after this incident, his family moved to Blacksburg, Va. where he grew up. He graduated from Blacksburg High School in June, 1969 and enlisted in the United States Coast Guard the following September for a four year tour of duty. Wood received basic training at the U.S. Coast Guard .Training Center at Cape May, N. J. Operating under the U. S. Department of Transportation, the Coast Guard trained Fireman Wood in military customs and traditions, seamanship, military drill, swimming and weapons training. Aboard ship he takes an active part in air-sea search and rescue, Merchant Marine inspection and ocean weather station patrols, patrol of oceans, rivers and harbors wherever American men or craft may be operating; as well as cooperating with Customs and other Federal agencies in law enforcement on the high seas.
Fireman Wood’s first official assignment in November 1969 following basic training was duty aboard the STEADFAST. It is a sleek 210-foot sea-going “first aid station and police patrol” craft powered with twin diesel turbine engines and equipped with the most up-to-date electronic devices available. It boasts a landing deck for helicopter air-sea rescue work. The one year old ship is completely self-contained with living quarters and air-conditioned facilities for a crew of approximately 30 men and has erasing capacity of up to two weeks without having to touch land. Wood’s particular work aboard ship is concerned with the operation and maintenance of equipment in the ship’s engine room. The ship is on call at all times to go on search and rescue missions to aid any and all types of sea-going craft that happen to be in distress.
Wood relates his very first mission as one of note: at 11:30 one night, the alert for a rescue mission was given. A fishing vessel in the Gulf of Mexico had been reported missing. Fireman Wood’s ship immediately got under way, traveling at top speed, in turbulent seas, to the approximate area where the fishing boat was supposed to be. With deft radar techniques the STEADFAST crew located the lost craft which had experienced engine trouble and lay walloping helplessly in high seas. Its crew
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