I will warn you up front – this is going to be a fairly large posting, broken into 3 parts, but I plan to keep it all in one thread….

As you are probably aware, this past weekend was a historic one. It is probably the first and only time a ship in the Coast Guard or Navy would be decommissioned and another commissioned in the same ceremony. Of course, the ships I am talking about are the USCGC Mackinaw (WAGB 83, Big Mac) and the USCGC Mackinaw (WLBB 30, Baby Mac).



The day was a beautiful one – temps in the low 60s, a great blue sky and a breeze (actually too much breeze for some of our group). Mary, Jeff and Brighteyes met me at the Cheboygan Front Range Light at about 9:30. After the ladies did a little shopping in the gift shop we headed for the K-Mart parking lot where shuttle busses would pick us up for the short trip to the CG station. Arriving at about 10:15, we were very close to the start of the line. Not too long after we arrived Suzanne and Pam arrived and joined us in line. Busses started making their runs just before 11:00, and we were on the station by 11:00. After getting our bags checked we decided to stake out some seats before looking at the goodies available.



All the seating was under a giant tent – about 2500 seats from what we read. The ceremonies would take place under the tent, but unfortunately all you could see of the ships were their hulls. We sat at the edge of the tent so we could easily step out for photos without bothering others.

Not too far from our seats was the tent with the cakes for the reception. Wouldn’t you like to see the oven they used to bake this cake?



Digger surfaced from his underground safe house long enough to bring his wife Becky to Mackinaw for the weekend:



Here’s a view of the tent and crowd present at this historic ceremony:


As the time approached for the ceremonies to begin, the two crews made their way to the tent. First the crew of WLBB 30:


Then the crew of WAGB 83:


Next came all the dignitaries, including ADM Allen, brand new Commandant of the Coast Guard and Speaker of the House Hastert. After they “arrived” the customary 19-gun salute was given by the downsized saluting battery: One of the speakers later commented that the gun salutes were part of the Coast Guard’s contribution to cormorant control efforts.