DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

(DART)(DART)

U.S. Coast Guard AuxiliaryTelecommunications

• The primary responsibility of a marine radio watchstander is to monitor and respond to mariners seeking assistance. 

• Auxiliary Telecommunications Operators (TCOs) are trained and certified to handle both distress (MAYDAY) and non-distress radio calls.

DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

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DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAININGDISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

• TCOs must demonstrate handling such calls as part of their Personal Qualification Standards signoff to be certified as a TCO.

 

• As distress calls are infrequent, practice is needed to keep skills sharp.

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DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAININGDISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

• This Program – Distress Assist Response Training (DART) provides ongoing training and practice for handling such mariner calls.

• DART is equally effected at Auxiliary Communications Units (ACU) or a comms watch aboard surface or air Operational Facilities on patrols.

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 DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

 DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

• Oceanside California Flotilla 114-01-06 has developed a distress call response drill to keep their staff of TCOs responding skill at the highest level. 

• Their ACU is manned by a single TCO watchstander each weekend day with different watch teams each weekend.

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Flotilla 114-01-06Oceanside Harbor

ACU

58 Flotilla Members12 TCO/Watchstanders60+ hours/month watch

DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAININGDISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

• The Sunday watch prepares a detailed written distress scenario and calls the Saturday watch on the ACU’s phone announcing the drill. 

• The calling watch acts as the distressed boater and respond to the information asked by the ACU’s duty watch.

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DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAININGDISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

• When completed, the ACU duty watch simulates reporting the information to the Sector by calling the ‘distress’ watch to relay the information. 

• This serves as a check on the accuracy of the distress information obtained against the written distress scenario of the distress caller.

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 DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

 DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

• A hot wash between the TCOs concludes the drill by covering accuracy of information recorded to confident voice inflection.  

• This drill is repeated the next day with the Saturday watch calling the Sunday duty watch with a new scenario.

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DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAININGDISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

• As weekend watch teams are mixed each month, a large variety of scenarios are generated for these drills. 

• All TCO watchstanders meet quarterly to review the overall distress response quality and further improvements in the drill exercises.

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DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAININGDISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

• A variation of this drill involves two surface OPFAC’s on patrol, one serving as the distressed vessel the other the rescue vessel. 

• The distress vessel requests help via cell phone to the ACU who relays the information via cell phone to the rescue vessel to execute a simulated rescue.

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DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAININGDISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

• DART may be conducted over VHF-FM radio only with agreement of the Coast Guard Order Issuing Authority.

• All VHF-FM traffic MUST be preceded with the phrase “THIS IS A DRILL” repeated three times.

• While cell phones are not as realistic, drills can be conducted more often.

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DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAININGDISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

• Operational unit can adjust the frequency of drills to fit their needs.

• DART drills may be conducted as often as every watch.

• It is strongly recommended DART drills be conducted at least quarterly.

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DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAININGDISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

• The overall objective of DART is the ongoing training and practice of calm, professional, confident, and accurate response to actual distress calls.

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DISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAININGDISTRESS ASSIST RESPONSE TRAINING

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