Brandon Twp.- Coast Guard Ensign Jamel Chokr has assisted in the rescue of fishermen and pilot whales, intercepted migrants and drug smugglers bound for the U.S., and provided protection for President Barack Obama.
Day-to-day operations depends on intelligence received, said the 28-year-old recently while visiting family in Brandon Township.
‘We could be chasing down a ‘go-fast,? which is a drug smuggling vessel, or conducting a search and rescue, or showing law enforcment presence in a specific area,? Chokr said. ‘The migrant piece is especially interesting… They will try any and all means they can to get here. We’ve stopped people on chugs, homemade vessels, pallets, pieces of wood with tarp and foam and using rice bags as sails.?
He recalls one 39-foot vessel with more than 130 Haitian migrants ranging from infants to the elderly.
‘What a lot of people don’t understand is these are search and rescue’these people are not going to make it and we find them in open ocean under the worst conditions you can possible imagine. You definitely feel for the people? you know why they’re doing what they’re doing, but they’re not doing it in the right way. You feel compassion and empathy for these people, but you are charged with enforcing our laws.?
A desire to find a career in law enforcement steered Chokr into the Coast Guard. After earning his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and sociology in 2010 from the University of Michigan-Flint, he sought a position that would lead him to doing large scale law enforcement and making a difference in people’s lives. In early 2012, he entered the Coast Guard, the only branch of the military that can enforce law over civilians. The Coast Guard is unique, he explains, in that it falls under Homeland Security rather than the Department of Defense and as such, has the ability to conduct law enforcement missions. During time of war, the Coast Guard can operate under the Navy, in the Department of Defense.
Following basic training, Chokr was stationed on the Coast Guard Cutter Confidence, out of Cape Canaveral, Fla. It was on the Confidence, a 210-foot medium-endurance ship, whose main mission is law enforcement, that he soon learned he had made the right decision in joining the Coast Guard. Chokr would be involved in the seizures of more than $20 million in drugs, and countless migrant operations and search and rescue cases. He served as a fireman in the engineering division on board Confidence and explains that in the Coast Guard, all shipmates have collateral duties to make the boats run.
The U.S. Coast Guard patrols over 95,000 miles of coastline and performs 11 critical missions essential to safety and security of the U.S. with a workforce Chokr said is roughly the size of the New York Police Department, about 35,000 people. The Coast Guard has units and missions all over the world.
On the Confidence, Chokr served with about 100 crewmates, alternating two months in port and two months out to sea, covering hundreds of miles of ocean during missions that changed as quickly as the wind.
Chokr recalls his most memorable search and rescue, when the Confidence was diverted from another mission to find five Dominican Republic fishermen whose boat had caught fire. A good Samaritan came across the sinking wreckage and the fishermen were nowhere to be found. The Coast Guard, which measures current and wind and can calculate set and drift taking into account the general tides of an area and a debris field, was called in to assist.
All hands were on deck, the entire crew looking for the lost men in a seemingly endless sea. After hours of searching, the crew spotted an orange Gatorade cooler with three fishermen clinging to it and dropped a small boat from the cutter to pick them up. The fourth and fifth fishermen were soon found as well, surviving due to flotation devices.
‘We rescued all five and they had been in the water 14 hours, so they were on the verge of death,? said Chokr. ‘Everything you work for to make that cutter run, all the tedious work in a 120-degree engine room? that moment of rescue makes it all worth it and reminds us of why we do what we do.?
All of the fishermen were conscious. One had a severely injured back. The crew got them dry clothes and wrapped them in blankets while the ship’s medical expert treated them to the best of his capabilities before a helicopter arrived to take them off the ship. Survival of such individuals depends on factors including time and water temperature, Chokr said. The water the fishermen was in was 77 degrees, but that is still 20 degrees cooler than the average body temperature. Fourteen hours in the water was pushing the upper limits of endurance. He notes that without the cooler or the life vests, the story would have ended much differently.
The desperation of some individuals being plucked from the sea can also endanger the lives of those trying to save them.
Chokr has encountered migrants found in open water who want nothing more than to be out of terrible conditions of their own vessel and into the Coast Guard boats.
‘We have to be cautious how we approach,? he said. ‘They crowd to one side and can capsize… A lot of times they want to jump. They have been out at sea for days, they are starving, there is feces everywhere, they want nothing more than to be off of whatever they are on. We have to take a systematic approach so it doesn’t turn into chaos. It’s a very tense situation.?
He and his colleagues have also encountered smaller vessels with migrants who are unhappy to see the Coast Guard, upset, thinking they could have made it to U.S. shores. They are often the people with backgrounds that U.S. citizens wouldn’t want in this country, said Chokr.
‘It’s crazy how you can go from rescue to law enforcement in the flip of a switch,? he said. ‘It can turn into law enforcement quickly where the use of force may have to be used.?
The reverse can be true, too. Chokr has been on law enforcement missions when drug smugglers have fallen overboard and then have to be rescued.
‘It’s a cat and mouse game trying to catch drug smugglers,? he adds. ‘We take one step forward and they take a step. Their methods are everything from cargo ships to go-fasts and now they’ve started with semi-submersible vessels, like submarines, hanging a few feet below the surface of the water. They don’t dive completely down, but are incredibly difficult to detect.?
When they are located and cornered, Chokr said it is just as one would imagine in the movies? with law enforcement coming in with guns drawn and taking every precaution, but with one major exception. When police officers are involved in a shootout on land, backup is typically minutes away. In the middle of the ocean, the Coast Guard has no backup to come to the rescue. Luckily, there are typically no gunfights.
‘We come in with overwhelming force and they know already they are in trouble for what they did,? notes Chokr. ‘If they tried to escalate it by getting into a shootout, it would worsen their own situation. One of the cases we had, there were two vessels transporting guns and money and they got into a shootout with each other.?
The Coast Guard has seized many of these vessels in the past decade, as well as millions of dollars worth of cocaine and marijuana. The Coast Guard, which has many bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements with other nations, is responsible for more than 50 percent of the annual U.S. cocaine seizures.
In the summer of 2013, Chokr left the Cutter Confidence and joined an anti-terrorism, deployable specialized forces unit for the Coast Guard? the Maritime Safety and Security Team Miami. The specialized law enforcement team is comprised of six 25-foot small boats and was created after Sept. 11 to prevent terrorist acts.
The team does high-risk, high-profile security missions, including deploying anytime President Obama is waterside, whether he is playing golf or attending a United Nations meeting.
‘When you thinking of the large scale protection of someone, it doesn’t get larger than that,? said Chokr.
While Miami is the homebase of the team, they can deploy anywhere in the world. Chokr and the Maritime Safety and Security Team Miami offered their services as well at Super Bowl XLVIII played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The team patrolled the Hudson River, doing sweeps of bridges and critical infrastructure.
Events like the Super Bowl can become terrorist targets due to the sheer amount of people in attendance. Team Miami was assigned to establish a security zone around a cruise ship on the Hudson River, ensuring no one could drive a boat of explosives to it.
While the team’s primary mission was to prevent humans from harming other humans, they also were called on to assist another species.
In December 2013, pods of pilot whales were beaching themselves near the Florida Everglades. Chokr and his tactical law enforcement unit responded to keep people away from the whales. Many of the animals had died on shore, while others were stranded in 8 to 10 feet of water. The team brought marine biologists out in their boat and remained in the area until eventually the whales migrated back out to sea.
This past July, Chokr reported to officer candidate school in New London, Ct. Only five percent of applicants are accepted. After a 17-week intensive program, Chokr graduated first in his class Nov. 24. He is now stationed in Sector Mobile, Ala., where he will set up operations and law enforcement missions from Mississippi down to Panama City and Pensacola, Fla. He is looking forward to a long-term career in the Coast Guard. While it is difficult being out to sea and away from family, which includes wife, Bailee, and parents, Vikki and Dimitrie Toth of Brandon Township and Hassan Chokr of Sarasota, Fla., he enjoys sharing stories with them of how he helped rescue people or stopped the smuggling of drugs into this country.
‘Those tangible large scale differences, when you make a drug seizure or save someone’s life? that makes the sacrifice well worth it.?