Cawthon: New movie brings back memories for retired Coast Guardsman
Jerry Cartmill knew what it was, even in the span of a short TV ad.
The look fit.
The size fit.
The sound certainly fit.
"The sound," he said. "Very unique engine sound. It brought it all back to me."
It was a 36-foot motor lifeboat, a Coast Guard mainstay in the mid-20th century.
And Cartmill would know, having spent more than 20 years keeping waterways safe from Oregon to Florida.
The rescue boat was already dated by the time he became a guardsman in 1971.
But it was in its heyday on Feb. 18, 1952 when it was used in one of the Coast Guard's most daring rescues.
That incident, off the coast of New England, is the basis for the new Disney-produced Chris Pine movie, "The Finest Hours," set to premiere Jan. 29.
SEAMAN APPRENTICE
Growing up in landlocked Edmond, Okla., Cartmill was fascinated by the ocean. He planned to join the Navy until he saw an advertisement from the Coast Guard which focused on a rescue.
Alameda, Calif., served as his training ground. As a seaman apprentice, he swept, mopped and cleaned aboard the USCGC Resolute in San Francisco.
"We would go out on patrol," he recalled. "We had a few calls."
Then came Depoe Bay, Ore.
"Oregon, I loved," he said. "The terrain, the people. Depoe Bay is one of the smallest navigable bays in the United States."
He pulls out a sepia-toned photograph as proof. It's one he took himself, with the month and year marked on the back in pen.
More photos follow, each with the month and year on the back. And each documents his time in Oregon during the 1970s.
One depicts just how close foreign vessels came to U.S. shores during the Cold War. The hammer and sickle of a Soviet ship mere miles off the coast is easily visible.
JACK NICHOLSON, HOLLYWOOD COME TO TOWN
Another, marked "April '75," comes with its own story.
"Did you ever see 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'?"
He didn't encounter Jack Nicholson up close, but Depoe Bay served as a film site for the movie's fishing trip scene. Cartmill and his peers helped serve as security.
The bay was too small for the filmmakers' liking -- they couldn't have a Coast Guard post so close to a boat that's about to be stolen. And so the post was renamed the "Depoe Bay Yacht Club" for filming purposes.
"We were tasked with -- every time they went out (on the water) we went out, too, in case anything happened," he said. "Nothing ever happened."
But there was the day the cast and crew started throwing eggs at Cartmill’s boat while out on the water. Cartmill doesn't recall if a single egg connected and guesses their motivation was nothing more than boredom.
The film would go on to sweep the Golden Globes and won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor.
SETTLING IN BEAUFORT
He considers himself blessed to have experienced every aspect of the Coast Guard.
And he was often the officer in charge or XPO (executive petty officer) during his missions.
As with any service career, there was a lot of travel.
He met his wife Susan while stationed in Jacksonville, Fla. She was from Savannah, born and raised.
He retired in 1994. One day, as the couple lived in Peoria, IL, his wife said, “I’ve followed you around this country for 20 years. Now it’s time for you to follow me home.”
The two settled in Beaufort in 1997.
Two grown children now live in Baltimore, a former stop when they were still a traveling military family.
Despite decades in the service, Cartmill said he didn't know about the New England rescue portrayed in "The Finest Hours" until a few months ago.
"This rescue happened the same year I was born," he said, one of his several small dogs occupying his lap. "It wasn't talked about."
In school, they were taught more recent rescue missions. And much of his early training was on the West Coast, anyway.
He credits the 1952 rescue as much for the boat as for those who served aboard it.
“That rescue could not have happened with any other type of small boat the Coast Guard had at the time,” he said. “When I saw the movie previews, it occurred to me that I was fortunate enough to be one of the last Coasties to actually operate one of those boats. The capabilities of the Motor Life Boats in the Coast Guard fleet are truly phenomenal. They can go out and operate in the kind of heavy weather and surf that no sane person would ever take any other type of boat out in.”
Cartmill was only in his 40s when he left the service. A second career followed -- owning and operating Secure Lock & Key in Beaufort, which he has done 19 years.
But he still enjoys thumbing through old photographs of what he used to do.
"It was a good career."
Do you have a story to tell? Know someone in the community that deserves recognition? Reach Engagement Editor Graham Cawthon at gcawthon@islandpacket.com or follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GrahamCawthon.
This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 1:45 PM with the headline "Cawthon: New movie brings back memories for retired Coast Guardsman."