Boatswain Kurt Strauch (Ret.) talks Coast Guard firefighting, including the rescue of a commercial fishing crew aboard an 80 foot scalloper on fire off Montauk, New York, the massive effort to save a 180 foot freighter on fire in the Florida Straits, saving the Cutter Gallatin after a fire broke out in dry dock, and extinguishing flames aboard the Polar Star during a voyage to the Antarctic. He also tells of operations at McMurdo Station, serving as an arctic pilot during the tow of a disabled 400 foot cargo ship from the Southern Ocean to New Zealand, migrant interdictions in the South Pacific, and commanding an IMARV on the Potomac in the aftermath of 9/11, a station, and an 87 foot cutter as an enlisted Boatswain’s Mate and Officer in Charge.