New Coast Guard Station St. Ignace crew members are getting settled in the community. Pictured (from left) Fireman Machinery Technician Alexander Gabriel, Seaman Apprentice Thomas Goatley, Seaman Apprentice David Tam, and Operations Petty Officer Matt Reisinger. Coast Guard Operations Petty Officer Matt Reisinger has returned to Station St. Ignace following a year of volunteer service in the Middle East, and the local station also has three new crew members who will serve in search and rescue missions and aids to navigation. Seaman Apprentice David Tam, Seaman Apprentice Thomas Goatley, and Fireman Machinery Technician Alexander Gabriel are the new members.

In 2007, Petty Officer Reisinger left St. Ignace and headed to Iraq to serve on board the 110-foot Coast Guard Cutter Wrangell, which was protecting the two main oil terminals off the coast of Iraq. This is not the first time the father of two has volunteered to help others.

"As I'm coming up at the end of my career," he said, "to be able to say that within the 20 years that I served, I was able to serve my county at a time of war, at a place of war, that was one of those things that was important to me."

He describes his time in Iraq as exciting, tense, and adventurous, but with temperatures reaching 154 degrees. Now back from Iraq, he appreciates the cooler temperatures of the north.

Work there involved training Iraqi Marines and sailors to take over patrol operations. Interpreters are used to bridge the languages.

"For me, I had a lot of fun working with them," he said, "training them, helping them out."

Those who return from war zones are given priority in their choice of stations, and he selected Sault Ste. Marie, where his family lives and where he has a small wood craft business, or nearby St. Ignace.

His family includes his wife, Janet, and their two children, Catherine, 16, and Gustavo, 14.

With 17 years in the Coast Guard, he plans to retire from the St. Ignace station within the next four years.

At Station St. Ignace, Petty Officer Reisinger will drive the 47- foot motor life boat. He also is a liaison with local agencies and schedules station duties for events like fireworks.

In 2005, he was one of four from Station St. Ignace to go to New Orleans to conduct search and rescue operations following Hurricane Katrina.

New to the Coast Guard, St. Ignace, and northern living is Seaman Apprentice David Tam, 23, of Clearwater, Florida.

"I've heard the winters are brutal," he said. "I'm already looking for a snowboard."

He is stationed in St. Ignace on his first assignment since being graduated from Cape May, New Jersey, in May.

Tired of the typical 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job routine, he joined the Coast Guard looking to do something different. When he enlisted, he had been working at a golf course and he was taking some college classes. He has two uncles who are retired from the armed forces, one from the Air Force and the other from the Navy.

The Coast Guard, with training programs and search and rescue missions, offered Seaman Apprentice Tam the adventure and the spontaneity that can come as crews are sent out at a moment's notice to rescue boaters, swimmers, and those who fall through weak ice. The Coast Guard offered him what he was looking for in life, he said.

"That's how I take everything," he said; "one day at a time."

In about a year, he hopes to be a Boatswain's Mate and, depending on advancement and training, he could be in St. Ignace for between one and four years.

He enjoys training exercises, including working with the Traverse City-based Coast Guard helicopter. The station conducts training with the helicopter several times a month.

"It's just another day at the office," he said.

Until receiving his assignment at the local station, Seaman Apprentice Tam had never been to the St. Ignace area or the Upper Peninsula.

"It's beautiful," he said.

His family remains in Florida, although one of his two sisters may travel to the area for work, he said. She is an editor at a Tampa Bay magazine and is hoping to write an article on Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel for the publication. He is looking forward to her visit. In the meantime, he said, the crew at the station have made his transition from Florida to Michigan a smooth one.

"People like this make you want to stay in for life," he said of the station crew.

Five days out of boot camp, Seaman Apprentice Thomas Goatley, 22, headed for St. Ignace. He had never been to the Great Lakes region before being assigned to Station St. Ignace in late June. In fact, he has never been around snow.

"I don't know if I'm ready for winter," he said, "but I guess I've got to get ready for it."

He is from Grant, Florida, and he will be stationed here between one and four years.

His boot camp stay in June at Cape May, New Jersey was the farthest north he had ever been at that point. Upon graduation, boot camp graduates are given a "dream sheet" to complete, listing their three top choices of assignments.

"St. Ignace wasn't on my dream sheet," he said. "It was mainly places in the south. When I first heard about it, the first thing that comes to mind is like four feet of snow on the ground and I've never really been around snow."

Once he did some research and found out about the fishing, he was excited and surprised about how nice the Great Lakes area looks.

"So far, it's a pretty nice place," he said.

The son of a retired Navy man, Seaman Apprentice Goatley was born in Hawaii, lived in San Diego, California, and grew up in Virginia Beach. His father recommended he join the Coast Guard and now SA Goatley is looking forward to his service. He plans to retire from the Coast Guard. He is considering all of the possibilities the Coast Guard has to offer, before selecting a specialty.

About seven months ago, Fireman Machinery Technician Alexander Gabriel, 18, of Lapeer joined the Coast Guard. He has been in training and arrived in St. Ignace in June. His hometown of Lapeer is less than five hours away, and for him, that already has meant visits from family and trips home.

Before being stationed in St. Ignace, he traveled on several vacation trips to the Upper Peninsula with his parents. He is the first person in his family to join the military and he is finding it interesting. He enjoys meeting new people.

He already has completed training to become a machinery technician at the Coast Guard Training Center in Yorktown, Virginia. Now he fixes engines, repairs machinery, and performs preventive maintenance. His responsibility is to make sure equipment will function during an operation such as a search and rescue mission.

Finding a job in Michigan is difficult, he said, and joining the military for him meant a job, a paycheck, benefits, and a career. He appreciates that the Coast Guard is a smaller branch of service, which makes it easier to make friends and to stay connected with those he has met during boot camp and training school.

The Coast Guard, he said, was the one branch in the military that also provided an opportunity to save lives as part of its mission. Saving lives, rather than being in a position to take a life, was key for him in choosing the Coast Guard.

Now he plans to make the Coast Guard his career and eventually retire from the service. Most people, when enlisting, sign up for four years, and he signed up for six, he said.

"I'm sure," said Fireman Machinery Technician Gabriel, "I'm going career."