Announcing the 2009 Coast Guard Video of the Year Winners

Cross-posted from the Coast Guard Compass.

Results are in! The winners of the first annual Coast Guard Video of the Year Award are…

Drum roll please…..

First Place

With an average rating of 4.64 (out of a possible 5) stars, Coast Guard Cutter Sailfish wins first place for their video featuring the dewatering of the fishing vessel Blue Diamond about 90 miles off the coast of New Jersey. The 87-foot CGC Sailfish is homeported in Sandy Hook, NJ.

“The entire crew is pumped to win this contest!” said the Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Junior Grade Steve Davies. ”When Chief Goss was taking the pictures and video during the rescue, he was just thinking about the families and friends of Sailfish. We hadn’t thought about posting anything online, but then the First District Public Affairs staff put a great video together and posted it online for everyone to see. It’s a great feeling to get some recognition for the work we did that day. The Coast Guard did a lot of great things in 2009 and we were just lucky the case was successful, the three fishermen and their vessel were saved, and that we were able to capture some of it on film.”

Click here to read more on the rescue and watch our winning video (or watch the extended version of the rescue operation here).

CGC Sailfish places first in the 2009 Coast Guard Video of the Year contest. Click the image to watch the extended version of the rescue operation.

Second Place

With an average rating of 3.53 stars, Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 409, a Tactical Law Enforcement Team South (TACLET South) unit located in South Florida, won second place for a Navy video of the LEDET capturing suspected pirates as part of Combined Task Force 151.

“It was a great working relationship between the LEDET and the crew of USS Gettysburg,” said Lieutenant Dave Ratner, Commanding Officer of TACLET South. “It is a big honor to be involved in showing the public the Coast Guard’s involvement in non-traditional, overseas missions and our efforts to help combat the international piracy efforts.”

Click here to read about the mission and watch our second place video (or watch an extended version of the operation here).

LEDET 409 places second in the 2009 Coast Guard Video of the Year contest. Click the image to watch the extended version of the joint operation.

Third Place

With an average rating of 3.35 stars, Coast Guard Air Station Astoria won third place with a video featuring the rescue of a paraglider from a cave on the shoreline of Cape Lookout. The rescue swimmer, AST3 Robert Emley, and his flight crew were featured as the Guardians of the Week a few days after the SAR case. Amazingly, this rescue was just one of five missions in 12 hours the air crew conducted that day.

Click here to read about this daring rescue and watch our third place video.

AirSta Astoria places third in the 2009 Coast Guard Video of the Year contest. Click the image to watch the video of the rescue operation.

All of the video nominations were fantastic, but the top three winners were determined by the public’s vote using YouTube’s rating system of one to five stars. The winning units will receive an HD Flip video camera in a waterproof case to enhance their ability to capture and share imagery of their operations.

Congratulations to all of this year’s top 11 videos! Excellent job using video to highlight the missions and stories of America’s Guardians.

The next contest featured on the Compass blog will be the People’s Choice Award for this year’s Coast Guard Photo Contest. Click here for details.

Coast Guard Video of the Year Contest

Cross-posted from the Coast Guard Compass

Everyday, Guardians are involved in amazing rescues, national security operations and drug interdictions. Whenever possible, Guardians capture those Coast Guard operations on video. The videos truly highlight the missions and stories of America’s Guardians. Sometimes you see them on the evening news, but often you don’t.

For the past several years, the Coast Guard has been recognizing the top videos of the year. We’ve narrowed it down to 11 finalists (a tribute to the Coast Guard’s 11 statutory missions), but we want your help in deciding which one is the “Coast Guard Video of the Year” for 2009.

The link above will take you to a first look video compilation of the 11 finalists for video of the year. Starting next Monday (December 21, 2009), the Compass blog will highlight one video per day together with audio from a member of the Coast Guard unit involved in the mission. You can then follow the link to the Coast Guard YouTube “Video of the Year 2009″ playlist to use the rating and comment feature to cast your vote.

Votes will be accepted until January 8, 2010. The units with the top three videos will receive a Flip video camera to enhance their ability to capture and share imagery of their operations.

For updates on the contest, you can watch comments in the YouTube playlist, stay tuned to the blog, check the Coast Guard Facebook fan page or follow the Twitter hashtag #uscgtopvideos.

UPDATE: Voting continues! Head over to the Coast Guard Compass to check out the second video for the contest. Go cast your vote!