Fort Bragg

Coast Guard conducts dramatic night training operation from Noyo Bridge to Pudding Creek

Helicopters were circling from 5pm to 950pm on Thursday over Noyo Harbor, Pudding Creek and Cleone They sounded like big Coast Guard Copters. I had no idea what was going on? Could this be a drill? At night? I went out and took pictures. YUP! I called the Noyo station and they confirmed it. I had not heard a big night training exercise like this. Seems like a good idea but it was a surprise to me.

While Brutus and I were out walking miles and miles on the ocean from 5pm to 8pm my heart sank about 7pm hearing the circling of the Coast Guard helicopter. About dark we made it back to the car and drove into town and two helicopters were circling and a boat was out there. The scanner bloodhounds had nothing. I called FBPD, they had heard nothing. A crowd was watching at the Pudding Creek Trestle and at the Noyo Headlands Park. Nobody knew anything. I called the Coast Guard and they told me it was a drill. The capper was when I heard one flying seemingly over the house here In Cleone. Seemed weird to have a drill this late (that was just before 10 pm.). A fishing boat was coming in as well. Here are some videos.

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Frank Hartzell

Frank Hartzell has spent his lifetime as a curious anthropologist in a reporter's fedora. His first news job was chasing news on the streets of Houston with high school buddy and photographer James Mason, back in 1986. Then Frank graduated from Humboldt State and went to Great Gridley as a reporter, where he bonded with 1000 people and told about 3000 of their stories. In Marysville at the Appeal Democrat, the sheltered Frank got to see both the chilling depths and amazing heights of humanity. From there, he worked at the Sacramento Bee covering Yuba-Sutter and then owned the Business Journal in Yuba City, which sold 5000 subscriptions to a free newspaper. Frank then got a prestigious Kiplinger Investigative Reporting fellowship and was city editor of the Newark Ohio, Advocate and then came back to California for 4 years as managing editor of the Napa Valley Register before working as a Dominican University professor, then coming to Fort Bragg to be with his aging mom, Betty Lou Hartzell, and working for the Fort Bragg Advocate News. Frank paid the bills during that decade + with a successful book business. He has worked for over 50 publications as a freelance writer, including the Mendocino Voice and Anderson Valley Advertiser, along with construction and engineering publications. He has had the thrill of learning every day while writing. Frank is now living his dream running MendocinoCoast.News with wife, Linda Hartzell, and web developer, Marty McGee, reporting from Fort Bragg, California.

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