A local guy and two of his buddies and their retriever were hunting Redheads on the Gulf coast during the shutdown. The guys were all young, teens and twenties. They are sons of friends of mine.

They weren't seeing any ducks close in that morning so they went out on the flats to look for a raft of ducks and fish a little. Unfortunately for them, they spun off their prop and didn't have much of an anchor. They drifted off into deeper water and were hit by a wave big enough to capsize the aluminum duck-boat they were in.

They had cell phones and called one of the Daddies. He placed an emergency call to the Coast Guard and was informed that because of the shutdown they were grounded and could not initiate a search until the boys had been missing for some specific period of time. This was after being informed that the boat was upside down and the three boys and the dog were riding the hull in bad waves.

The Daddies got in touch with a volunteer who initiated a search but couldn't find them. Finally the time ran for the Coast Guard to activate. Their helicopter found the boys 24 miles off shore at midnight, and they were rescued. The boys and the Lab all repeatedly slipped off the hull of the boat but all were young and tough enough to survive the ordeal.

That delay on the part of the Coast Guard was not 'political theater', it was government dereliction in a life threatening situation. It should never have happened...Geo