Multimedia Release

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Coast Guard port security crews return home to family and friends at Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater Feb. 25, 2010, following a 37-day deployment to Haiti. With 48-hours of notice, 118 crewmembers of Coast Guard port security units from Clearwater, Fla., Everett, Wa., and San Pedro, Calif., deployed to Haiti, providing security while several Coast Guard units re-established the port in Port-au-Prince after a devastating 7.0 earthquake struck Jan. 12, 2010. While there, the units volunteered with local orphanages to provide medical attention and medicine to injured Haitians and helped to rebuild a hospital in Petionville, Haiti. U.S. Coast Guard video by Petty Officer 3rd Class Rob Simpson.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Petty Officer 1st Class Kelly Salls, of Port Security Unit (PSU) 307, stationed in Clearwater, Fla., greets her daughters, Feb. 25, 2010, after returning home from a 37-day deployment to Haiti. With 48-hours of notice, 118 crewmembers of Coast Guard port security units from Clearwater, Fla., Everett, Wa., and San Pedro, Calif., deployed to Haiti, providing security while several Coast Guard units re-established the port in Port-au-Prince after a devastating 7.0 earthquake struck Jan. 12, 2010. While there, the units volunteered with local orphanages to provide medical attention and medicine to injured Haitians and helped to rebuild a hospital in Petionville, Haiti. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Mariana O'Leary.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Crewmembers from multiple Coast Guard port security units returned home Thursday after a 37-day deploymet in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The 118 crewmembers from port security units (PSU) in Clearwater, Everett, Wa., and San Pedro, Calif., provided security while several Coast Guard units re-established the port in Port-au-Prince.

While there, the PSU members also volunteered with local orphanages to provide medical attention and medicine to injured Haitians and helped to rebuild a hospital in Petionville, Haiti.

PSU crewmembers also transported numerous injured Haitians to various medical stations to receive much-needed medical care and repaired two Haitian coast guard boats.

"We are very proud of the men and women that make up these port security units," said Lt. Sandor Schump, PSU 307's logistics officer.  "The fact that not only were they able to deploy within 48 hours, but what they have done for the people in Haiti is as equally impressive."

Coast Guard PSUs are a deployable unit organized for worldwide operations. They have the ability to deploy within 96 hours and establish operations within 24 hours following activation. They provide waterborne and land-based protection for shipping and critical port facilities. As a part of the Deployable Operations Group, the Coast Guard's eight PSU's focus primarily on port security and defense operations, and are made up largely of reservist personnel.

Videos of the PSU's operations in Haiti are available for download here, here and here.

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti - A Coast Guardsman from Port Security Unit (PSU) 307 spends time with a Haitian girl during a humanitarian visit to an orphanage in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, Feb. 03, 2010. The PSU is providing materials and labor to refurbish and supply this orphanage, as well as spend time with the staff and children, 21-days after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the nation's capitol. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Eric J. Chandler.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - U.S. Coast Guard crewmembers from Port Security Unit 307 build shelves to store medical supplies in a hospital in Petionville, Haiti Feb. 15, 2010. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Thomas M. Blue.