Michael Thompson

Innocence Lost

I had only been at the Command Center for about four months breaking-in as a Search and Rescue Controller under Lieutenant “Brown” when we received the emergency call from our local Coast Guard station at the Port of Miami. The day had been fairly uneventful at the U.S. Coast Guard Command Center in Miami, Florida where I worked. By uneventful, I mean no one had died on my watch…yet. As the lead controller, Lt. Brown answered the phone first and as the assistant break-in, I listened in on the conversation from my phone.