Rigid Hull Inflatable Operator's Training (RHIOT) with Philip Walker

My name is Philip Walker and I’m a Search and Rescue Preparedness Officer
with the Canadian Coast Guard Maritimes region.
My job is to ensure search and rescue readiness in the Maritimes region.
My main file as a training officer is the leads instructor for the Canadian Coast Guard
for the training facility here in Dartmouth and for all boat training both basic and advanced.
And this week we’re running a Canadian Coast Guard rigid hall inflate operating training course
for Coast Guard employees, RCMP and fisheries officers.
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Today is day 2 of our course, we did our survival exercises
where we practiced man overboard recoveries.
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Followed by a capsize reversal training where we flip a boat over in a control environment.
Put the students in the water and suits and they practice regressing from the vessel
and then reriding the capsize boat in the event that might happen for real or during an exercise this week.
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Day 3 of the course start off in class, prepping the students for a pacing exercise
which is conducting with the Coast Guard cutter Sambro a bit off shore.
First of all it’s a head and eye coordination exercise for the students
so working the throttles and driving the boat in somewhat in climate conditions.
This morning we have almost zero visibility so the students have to find the vessel first
and this is an exercise that we practice for search and rescue
and enforcement operations coming along side at speed to place a Coast Guard rescue specialist
or a law enforcement officer aboard a moving vessel in a somewhat controlled environment.
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Well I’ve been with the Coast Guard a little over 18 years.
I joined originally as a carpenter watchman aboard the Louis St-Laurent.
I joined as a person who was interested in going to sea, seeing the Arctic was really one of the main interests that I had.
Because I was young, they kind of focused me onto the search and rescue field
and of course once I started that I fell in love with that type of work
and that’s usually rewarding and it never left. So here we over 18 years later and it’s a great job,
probably the best job in the Coast Guard.
So part of what we do in the Coast Guard is help people and helping people is done in different ways
whether it’s working on the red river in Manitoba during the floods
whether it’s working in environmental response jobs or what I do is search and rescue
where you touch people’s lives potentially both in a rescue situations or in recovery situations.
It provides people with a good feeling of their job a feeling of accomplishment
and ultimately I think that’s what most people in our organization feel that’s why they work so hard everyday
and that’s why they want to be in the Coast Guard is to help people.
My advice to someone joining the Canadian Coast Guard or who are young and already in the Coast Guard
is to work hard to have fun at whatever they do
and if you want to move into different sections I certainly our organization allows for that
and allows you to move around a bit but it is hard work and in Search and rescue
it's one of the hardest jobs that we have and one of the worst conditions in the world at times.
So you know people need to know that what they do ultimately is saving lives
and we want to make sure that people work hard and have fun with their job. That's really important.