Mark Fluet On the USCGC MORGENTHAU (Tiwaneese Fishing Vessle Incident)

 Mark Fluet was on the mess deck of the United states Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau, awaiting another long Alaskan Patrol. What he noticed, as well as a lot of the crew, was the skies were not Gray, they were blue, and the water was beautiful.

 The crew started to notice that they were heading in the opposite direction. Mark R. Fluet reported to the engine room for duty and asked the Engineering Officer, but of course he was not told anything.

  Well around chow time that evening, a broadcast came over the radio, it was commander Kyle that informed the entire ships company that they were chasing a Taiwanese fishing vessel for catching chum salmon illegally.

 The Morgenthau came up on the boat fast, but to Mark's surprise as well as the entire crew the Executive Officer ordered the helmsman to circle around the ships.

 Now You know that a 378 foot high endurance cutter is no small boat but that did not stop the crew from following orders. What happened next was the Taiwanese vessel made a run for it. Now the diplomats sure do not get anything done fast, and the Captain followed protocol.

The Captain radioed Pacific Command and they notified the President, at that time it was George Herman Walker Bush. That diplomatic red tape lasted approximately 4 weeks.

During that time the United states Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau was in pursuit and out of the United States. They followed them through the fog banks, it was easy to stay behind them even if they could not see them the motor on the Taiwanese vessel was so loud it always told them where they were.

After almost four weeks of pursuit, the Captain got the orders to go ahead and stop the boat to board it, oh but there was one condition to this story all you folks out there. The Coast guard Cutter Morgenthau will do a joint boarding with the Japanese Coast guard, and the entire batch of fish will be confiscated and turned over to the Taiwanese Government.

Mark Fluet on the United States Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau (DRUG BUST)

The Year was 1990, the Place was the United States Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau under the command of Captain Fred L Ames. Mark Fluet was a Fireman, Meaning to all you folks that do not know what that is, it is an engineer.

It was an Alaskan Patrol in the bearing sea. The summer of 1990 the ship was making its routine patrol and Mark Fluet was finally qualified as a boat crew engineer. Break was coming. The Captain sounded Boarding team A lay to the small boat. It was mark's first time as Boat engineer. Trust me he didn't look nervous, but when I asked him he was very nervous.

The Small boat detail and the boat lowering detail got to the right side of the boat, and within minutes Mark and the crew was lowered into the bearing sea. They headed for a large vessel just north of Adak.

The entire time Mark worried about the boat if he could handle the task. If he was up to it, just as it was approaching the time that he was in the boat for 25 minutes C-130 planes flew over head. They were taking it in tow. Approximately too much to name that was confiscated. Of course, the man that got the props for the entire operation, and rightfully so, was the Captain Fred L. Ames. Fred was still fair and as the crew returned to the ship he did muster everyone in the mess hall and told them they were all apart of this and they were the best crew ever.

Mark knew the truth though, there really is not any such a thing as the best crew or the best ship. On one hand you can have the best state of the art ship, with all the newest modern technology. That ship would have countless bugs to work out. On the other hand you could have a ship that was a hundred years old and shakes like a rattle, but the bugs are long gone.

The news to the Operations area in San Francisco, earned the crew an extended leave in Canada. I will not tell you what happened there, but let us just say, that Mark R Fluet, for the first time was so drunk that he could not even walk a straight line, even after him and Warthen were walking back to the Ship Warthen was not in much better condition because he prayed top the porcelain God for hours.

It was not much to tell you, but the truth was mark sat in that boat in case the engine died, and his main responsibility was the boat. He did it well and as a very wise man once said, “ Every person, regardless of their position, is an equally important member to the team to accomplish it's mission.”

Mark Fluet United States Coast Guard Boot Camp

The day had finally come for Mark Fluet to leave home. He was so happy that he was going to be away from his sister that he smiled for the first time in over 10 years. The recruiter came to pick him up and he was driven to the meps station in San Diego, California, where he awaited the plane to fly him to New Jersey.

For the Boot Camp for the US Coast Guard was in Cape May, New Jersey. There was all kinds of different folks on that plane. One was going to be a solid friend, but believe me it did not start out that way.

The night fell as they were all picked up from the recreation center, the bus drove right to the front of the gate, when a large man in a full dress coast guard uniform came on to the bus. The group that was on the bus was a motley bunch Mark Fluet was one of the guys with short hair, the rest were long haired teens that were just out of high school as well.

“YOU MAGGOTTS HAVE 10 SECONDS TO GET YOUR ASSES OFF THIS BUS, AND 5 OF THEM ARE ALREADY GONE!” Yelled the large instructor. With that the bus started to clear out as 50 guys all tried to scramble for the exit.

The first week went through and then Mark and recruit Warthen were assigned to Laundry detail. Well what none of you folks out there reading this may know, but Mark R. Fluet's Uncle was a Master Chief Petty Officer, and since the Coast Guard was such a small branch of the armed forces, everyone knew the name Fluet.

So in retrospect, Mark really could not get away with anything because everyone was watching him. It was a simple detail really, all they had to do was march to the laundry and drop off the dirty laundry for the entire unit. Simple or not, it was not going to end up that way. Warthen took one of the laundry bags and hit Mark square in the Back of the head. Well, of course Mark was going to retaliate so he struck Warthen with the dirty underwear bag right smack in the mouth.

This exchange of hitting each other only lasted but a few seconds when out of nowhere screamed an instructor, “ YOU ASSHOLES GET DOWN!” This was the command to drop and get ready to do push-ups till your body ached.

Warthen had a lot of days where him and mark would be doing push-ups and sit ups till they were tired. Mark and Warthen actually did become friends and Warthen took the same first unit that Mark did, they were both assigned to the United States Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau.