Cape Disappointment Holds Annual Triumph Memorial Ceremony

Ilwaco, Wa- On Jan. 13, 2018 members of Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment gathered at the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center to watch the annual Triumph Memorial Service, held to honor the Coast Guardsmen and mariners that have been lost at sea in the Pacific Northwest since 1961.

   Approximately 150 attendees, including  former and current members of the Coast Guard, family, and friends, watched as a memorial wreath was placed in the Pacific Ocean near the Columbia River Bar.  

  Jeff Rusicki rings a bell for each one of the brave crew members that lost their lives during one of the seven different Coast Guard operations, as Gordon Huggins read the names aloud. The ringing of the bell is a traditional aspect of the Coast Guard’s memorial services; it invokes respect, dignity, and honor to those who were willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice.

  Both Huggins and Rusicki are former Coast Guardsmen that served on the Columbia River Bar. Huggins is the only surviving crew member of an attempted rescue mission, Jan. 12, 1961, in which the vessel and five of its crew members were lost in an attempted rescue of a fishing vessel.