RESERVIST MAGAZINE FROM THE EDITOR I’m finally back from four months of active duty at the 59th Presidential Inauguration! (There’s a little story on page 32; shout out to the blue suiters, Capt. Mike Ruwe, Lt. j.g. Jim Crone, Master Chief Joe Melton, Chief Michael Holtby, and Petty Officer Joe Garone!) Now that was an experience; having done the 58th, I can tell you I didn’t think it was possible to plan almost completely virtually with military colleagues from five services, some of whom I never met in person. Welcome to the new normal! (I will say, it was fun to see the servicemembers find ways to rib each other through gifs and memes, rather than making the typical cracks in person. It was comforting to see some things never change.) I joke, but meetings via videoconference, virtual drills, no-handshake introductions? I’m still getting used to it—just in time for things to start changing again. But if I squint hard, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s a welcome sight. I listened to a recent podcast episode of Hidden Brain from NPR called “Waiting Games.” In it, host Shankar Vedantam interviewed psychologist and researcher Dr. Kate Sweeny. In studying how people react to waiting, she said, “Is there any predictability to when waiting is the hardest and when it might be a little bit easier? We've found in that…it seems to be hardest at the beginning [and] in the end, and a little easier in the middle.” With the advent of spring, the pressure is easing, the weather is improving, and the stress is lifting. The waiting does seem to be the hardest right now, but, ohhhhhh, the glimmer of hope is so attractive, it’s hard to believe it’s not a mirage. It’s been lovely to sit in my backyard and hear my children playing… To hear my colleagues, friends and parents are getting vaccinated… To write stories on Coast Guard reservists who are helping the vaccine rollout across the country, from the team working at HHS to the individuals volunteering to staff vaccination sites, to our members who are helping the process through their civilian professions. I am so proud of this Component and the selflessness with which my fellow reservists serve. I love my job of telling their stories (find more about the coronavirus response operations on page 20). It’s been wonderful to go back to focusing on the positive in this issue, to have less uncertainty and more confidence in the systems that have improved with the boost in technology that came with the need to social distance. You know, at a recent conference, Commander of Sector Delaware Bay, Capt. Jonathan Theel, said, “The future is going to be unprecedented. But we are prepared, and we are the right service to help the nation through it. The greatest thing about the Coast Guard is—this is our normal. We excel in these situations, and it comes down to our leadership, delegated authority, and our flexible, adaptive nature.” The Reserve HAS stayed flexible, and our members have found ways to excel. Station Yaquina Bay’s reservists pitched in operationally to keep the station going when their shipmates got sick. Coast Guardsmen helped other Coast Guardsmen to get access to vaccines. Two petty officers were meritoriously promoted for helping fellow reservists weather the pandemic and continue to get qualified. As my fellow Coast Guard journalist, Chief Petty Officer Alex Haley said, “Find the good, and praise it.” I intend to. Stay safe, friends. Anastasia Devlin Editor-in-Chief 2 RESERVIST � Issue 1 • 2021 PSUs Bravo Zulu to Capt. Olson for his informative article “PSUs at 30,” which appeared in the latest Reservist. I was assigned to PSU 303 for the deployment and would like to add another chapter. We all knew we were going, the only question was when. The call finally came the evening of Friday, Sept. 14, when we were told to report to the Milwaukee airport for transportation at 0630 Sunday. However, as the famous saying goes, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.” There were a few glitches. The first glitch involved a group of 303’s engineering and medical teams who were at Camp Perry helping train members of the other two PSUs. They were allowed to go home Saturday morning using three vans with one going to Chicago, one to Milwaukee and one to Green Bay. They arrived home late Saturday in time to collect their gear and catch a few winks before heading out Sunday morning for the airport. Then we had a petty officer who was not in the PSU, had not joined us in any of our past training and had not been issued any uniforms or gear. Unfortunately, the command couldn’t reach her until Saturday night. Being a school teacher, she had to track down the principal late Saturday night and, owning some income property had to scramble to find someone to take care of that responsibility. To her credit, she was present at 0630 Sunday morning. And there was a lieutenant who got the word via a note on his windshield at 1200 Saturday. He RESERVIST MAGAZINE FROM OUR READERS
