The intense drama of rescue at sea - its triumphs and failures - has been woven into a story of high adventure by a man who devoted his career to this hazardous profession. This hard-hitting saga gives an intimate view of the service over the past forty years. To commemorate the Coast Guard's bicentenary, Waters has taken his popular 1966 edition of this book and substantially updated it. Now it includes such recent events as the Coast Guard's role in cleaning up the disastrous oil spill that occurred when the Exxon Valdez went aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The stepped-up war on drugs, refugee smuggling in the Caribbean, commercial airline crashes and modern day piracy are just a few of the dramatic cases described. After spending months with the current generation of Coast Guard aviators and seamen, Waters not only describes their daring efforts to save lives but examines changes in SAR policy, procedures and equipment to bring the book fully up to date. Many new photographs accompany the text. Captain John Waters, former Chief of the USCG's Search and Rescue Division, developed much of the nation's search-and-rescue doctrine and participated in hundreds of air and sea rescues.