The helicopter crews at Air Station Astoria
Photo: Intrepid11, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Coast Guard Air Station Astoria sits at the Astoria Regional Airport in Warrenton, a few miles from the mouth of the Columbia. It was established in 1964, and its helicopters cover a stretch of coastline across northern Oregon and southern Washington.
The station flies MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters, which can carry a crew of four and fly long distances offshore. A typical rescue crew includes two pilots, a flight mechanic who runs the hoist and a rescue swimmer who goes into the water.
The work
The station’s crews are on call around the clock. Missions include pulling fishermen from sinking boats, plucking injured hikers off cliffs, searching for overdue kayakers and medevacs from ships offshore. The Columbia River Bar, where the river meets the Pacific, is one of the most dangerous places for boats in the world, and crabbing season in winter often brings the hardest calls.
The Coast Guard also trains here. The Advanced Helicopter Rescue School, based at the air station, teaches crews from across the country to hoist in heavy surf and near cliffs, using the rough water off the North Coast as a classroom.
Living in the community
The station employs a few hundred active-duty members plus civilian staff, and many live in Warrenton, Astoria and Seaside. Coast Guard families are a major part of local school enrollment and shape the area’s housing market. Each transfer season, a new wave of families arrives and old ones depart, and the communities have learned to make room for them.
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