FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii – Army Mariners assigned to the 8th Special Troops Battalion, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, responded to a vessel in distress after receiving a radio call off the coast of Honolulu, Hawaii, Sept. 26, 2024.

The three Army mariners were underway doing routine training on the Army vessel Harbormaster when a Coast Guard distress call came across the marine band radio requesting any available boat to respond to a vessel in distress off the coast of Honolulu.

“By maritime law, if you receive a distress call and you’re capable of responding, it is your duty to respond,” said Sgt. Daniel Koster, an Army watercraft operator with 8th STB. “We didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into, but we believed in ourselves, that we are properly trained mariners, and we’re supposed to respond.”

Koster, the vessel master, contacted the Coast Guard to assess the situation to determine how the Army could be of assistance. He was informed there was an immobile sailboat approximately three miles off the shore with ripped sails and a broken motor.

After assessing the situation, the crew diverted from their training and travelled to the location indicated by the Coast Guard, where Spc. Jace Spivey, an Army watercraft operator with 8th STB, spotted the disabled sailboat.

Once the Army mariners reached the sailboat and confirmed the patrons were stable, they passed them a line and towed them over three miles in rough seas into Ala Wai Harbor.

Towing in the rough sea and strong wind was slow going and took us about an hour, said Spivey.

Once at Ala Wai Harbor, Spc. Nathanial Breaux, an Army watercraft operator with 8th STB, carefully maneuvered the disabled vessel into its berthing.

“Coming through the marina with that much wind was nerve wracking,” said Breaux. “The whole time it was just constant adjusting the throttle trying to tug them back in line with us to miss the boats on either side.”

After a stressful ordeal, the sailboat was tethered in the marina and the occupants happily disembarked while the team of Army Mariners returned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

“It feels good to help someone out, and then to find out they were Navy,” said Breaux. “The irony really, really gets me.”

According to Breaux, the crew consisted of three U.S. Navy Sailors and one civilian sailor who captained the distressed ship.

Koster recently returned from functional watercraft operations training at the Army Watercraft School, where Army Mariners are trained on all the skills necessary to operate small craft such as the Harbormaster, communicate with other vessels, the Coast Guard, and conduct safe towing operations.

“Most people don’t realize the Army has boats,” said Lt. Col. Pedro Fernandez, commander, 8th Special Troops Battalion. “But that’s just half the story, because we have extraordinary and competent mariners. I’m happy our team was out training and able to help, which is the foundation of who we are as an Army.”

The 8th Theater Sustainment Command is the Army’s foremost seafaring organization, operating multiple vessels and providing strategic maritime oversight for operations in the Indo-Pacific theater.