“Sailor of the Quarter” is an honor voted on by the personnel at the station and recognizes the contributions of individual service members for outstanding performance and support of the Coast Guard and its missions at the station level. The first “Sailor of the Quarter” for fiscal year 2019 is Fireman Elijah L. Wattree — high praise for a newly arrived station member with just over a year in the Coast Guard. A native of Bremerton, Washington, Fireman Wattree is the first in his family to join the Coast Guard and he’s finding it a good fit.

Coast Guard enlisted personnel fresh out of boot camp are known as “non-rates” which indicates that they haven’t chosen and been selected for training in a specific specialty area. That training is known as “A-School” and may span several months of specialized training. The two designations of non-rates are “Seaman” and “Fireman.” While a Seaman may work deck tasks and almost every other “non-mechanical” job while awaiting specialty training, a Fireman is more involved in engineering, machinery and maintenance tasks.

Fireman Wattree is at home in the engineering and mechanical areas, but also finds the variety of work and training available at a smaller station like Boothbay Harbor a plus where the boundaries between deck and engineering departments are necessarily blurry. He quickly achieved his qualification of Motor Life Boat Engineer and put that qualification to work on a three day, offshore, 150 mile return transit of one of the station’s 47 ft Motor Life Boats from a repair yard in Rhode Island. Fireman Wattree also was part of the team from Station Boothbay Harbor representing the Coast Guard at the funeral of retired Coast Guard Captain and longtime Boothbay Harbor resident, Ronald L. Blake.

The “Sailor of the Quarter” citation reads in summation, “Your compassion, hard work, and extreme commitment to the U. S. Coast Guard and Station Boothbay Harbor is evident and exemplifies the Coast Guard’s Core Values of Honor, Respect, Devotion to Duty. I greatly appreciate your dedication to duty and continued fine performance.” Signed: Adam P. Smart, Officer in Charge, Coast Guard Station Boothbay Harbor.