GLOUCESTER, Mass. (Tribune News Service) — As Gloucester 400+ committee members and speakers honored the long service of Coast Guard Station Gloucester during an Appreciation Day at the station Friday, rain and wind lashed the windows of the mess deck where the ceremony took place.

As the squall intensified, the wind drove water under the outside door and onto the floor as if the small boat station on Harbor Loop were taking on water.

Some said this symbolized the way Coast Guard Station Gloucester has been watching over Gloucester's fishing fleet and boaters caught in storms since 1901. And station members appreciated being a part of America's oldest seaport.

"It's truly a privilege and an honor to be able to serve and live in the city of Gloucester," said Commanding Officer James Bridges. Bridges, who also served in Gloucester in the early 2000s, said he will have served a total of eight years when he is finished with his present tour.

"There's no place I'd rather be," Bridges said.

Speakers honored the professionalism, sacrifices and risks of station personnel in protecting commercial fishermen and others out at sea. The tribute was held during Gloucester Fisheries Heritage Month during the year-long Gloucester 400+ anniversary celebration.

"It's inconceivable that we could think about celebrating the 400th anniversary of this city without celebrating the mariners and the service people of Coast Guard Station Gloucester," said state Sen. Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester native who has been part of the Coast Guard Auxiliary for more than 20 years.

The awful weather was an appropriate for the occasion, Tarr said.

"This is exactly the kind of day when we think about the men and women of Coast Guard Station Gloucester," Tarr said. "And we think about just how much they mean to us."

Part of the family

Tarr said the station is not some external entity, but "all of you are our family. And we think of you as our family. And we appreciate the sacrifice and the service that you make for us on exactly days like this," Tarr said.

He spoke about the times when he and Angela Sanfilippo sat in the mess as civilians late at night wondering what might happen to an overdue fishing vessel.

Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Association, said after the sinking of F/V Andrea Gail in the Perfect Storm of 1991, in which all six crew perished, the former commander of Station Gloucester called her about doing some safety training. That was the beginning of safety trainings now run by the Fishermen's Partnership support services, which includes trainings with fishers at Station Gloucester and elsewhere from Maine to North Carolina.

"And yes, like Bruce said, we have spent some really painful nights and days in this station but we were never alone, the Coast Guard was always there with us and we were with them," said Sanfilippo. "Today I can report that the relationship between the Coast Guard and the fishermen is at its best."

"This station is instrumental to any of us that have worked the waterfront in our lifetime," said Karen Tibbetts, co-chair of the Gloucester 400+'s Marine & Waterways Committee.

"Gloucester has a very unique station. I've learned a lot about who doesn't have a station as awesome as this. I found out they have 40 people who work here," said Tibbetts, asking for a round of applause station members.

The heart of Gloucester

"So we are standing right here kind of all together in the heart of Gloucester," said former Mayor Bruce Tobey, a Gloucester 400+ tri-chair. " Gloucester's got a lot of heart. And if you become part of this place, it'll take care of you."

After graduating law school, Tobey joined the Coast Guard and became an O-3 lieutenant in the law specialist program serving on Governors Island in New York City, while traveling up and down the East Coast.

"It was an amazing experience but more critically than anything else ... was the Coast Guard, the people, the mission, the commitment, the doing what had to be done when it had to happen."

Tobey said the Coast Guard defines service for Gloucester.

"You are an integral part of this community. It's not an easy community to navigate but you all do it. You serve the fishermen. You serve the recreational boaters," said Tobey, saying they do so with quality. He later saluted station members.

Members present and past

"So you ... guys and gals are a key part of our community," said Mayor Greg Verga, saying it was a privilege for him to be there to honor present and past service members.

In addition to station personnel, the event included family and Coast Guard veterans and retirees, among them former Gloucester Harbormaster Jim Caulkett Jr., who was the station's officer in charge from 1994 to 1997.

"I think it's great the committee recognizes what the Coast Guard means to the community," he said.

Also on hand was Joseph McKechnie who served seven years in the Coast Guard, four at the station, and Bob Breaker, whose assignments also included Station Gloucester.

Standing among those in uniform was Harbormaster Thomas "T.J." Ciarametaro, a member of the Coast Guard Reserves. Also on hand was Assistant Gloucester Harbormaster Chad Johnson, who served in the Coast Guard from 1996 through his retirement in 2014 as chief executive officer at Station Gloucester, after a stint in the Marines from 1992 through 1996.

Mary Ellen Rose, who is running for mayor, attended the ceremony wearing a Coast Guard cap as her 31-year-old son, Ronald Zack Blewett, is serving as a helicopter pilot in Clearwater, Florida.

"I'm very, very proud of him," Rose said.

At the end of the ceremony, Bridges recognized of some of the station's youngest members.

Bridges presented Boatswain's Mate Third Class Bailey Ceryak, 20, of Connecticut with a certificate as he had qualified as a coxswain of a 47-foot life boat. Bridges also commended Fireman Walker Stebbins, 21, also of Connecticut, for being part of a crew on a 29-foot response boat on a routine patrol on the Annisquam River that saved "a local teenager in distress" who had jumped into the water from the Blynman Bridge on June 2. Other members of the crew had earlier been honored for this event, Bridges said.

"I appreciate it," Stebbins said of Coast Guard Appreciation Day. "I've always loved this town."

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