Head chief receives service award

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Uchucklesaht head chief Clifford Charles (Tootapooth) was honoured in Vancouver June 16 for 35 years of service to the Canadian Coast Guard.

Charles, whose father Martin was in the coast guard for 32 years, said he did not follow in his father's footsteps but got into the coast guard by accident, both literally and figuratively.

"I was fresh out of high school, and all I wanted to do was to have fun and party," Charles recalled. "But you have to make money to party, so I thought logging and fishing were my only options, since I didn't know what I wanted to do career-wise," he said.

"Then one day I heard one of the coast guard crewmen had fallen down, breaking his leg in three places. So I phoned up the officer in charge and was hired on as a temporary replacement," he said.

The 61-year-old injured crewman's leg didn't heal properly, so he took an early retirement, and at the young age of 18, Charles' temporary job became a permanent career.

Thirty-five years later, Charles is one of the two officers in charge at the Bamfield Coast Guard Station and received his longtime service award at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver.

"The Canadian government has started recognizing people for work done," said Charles in his calm, quiet manner, making it sound as if his 35 years of saving lives on the water was like some quiet desk job.

"When I started, I decided that I wanted to be a captain before I retired, and I attained that," he said.

"In the beginning, most of the calls we'd receive were from disabled commercial fishing vessels, and now the calls mostly come from pleasure boats," said Charles. "We do a lot of medivacs (medical evacuations), towing disabled boats, searching for overdue vessels, and maintaining navigational aids."

One of the missions of high drama within the past few years was the rescue of a stolen sailboat. Taken from a marina in Vancouver, thieves sailed the 40-foot boat out into the open Pacific but got into trouble off Cape Beale. When the call came in from the disabled Caloni, Charles and others recognized the boat from a coast guard bulletin issued days before. Charles captained the coast guard vessel Cape Calvert out to the Caloni, where they rescued the crew and brought them into Bamfield. There the RCMP arrested them.

"We've had rough calls, but it's just part of the job," said Charles. "Others might see it as harrowing or whatever, but it's just everyday work."

Clifford and wife Rose have four daughters, and also operate a bed and breakfast in Bamfield.

Given the officer in charge rank four years ago, Charles will retire in 2007.