My name is aina mecano finland and I served in the united states coast guard for 20 years. I joined the Coast Guard actually on impulse. I was living in California at the time and I didn't really have a career plan. I just knew that I wanted to do something else, and it happened one day to be in town I, bumped into a friend that I hadn't seen from high school.

In a long time, we decided to catch up over lunch and on the way she wanted to stop and drop some papers off at the Coast Guard recruiters office and I had never heard of the Coast Guard, but I tagged along, and there was a video playing about the Coast Guard in it called my interest, especially the part where they showed the heavy surf rescue boats.

The minute I saw that I knew that that was what I wanted to do so I took the test, I passed it and left for the training center in New Jersey. Three days later in the service, my specialty was actually a dual mission: specialty as a federal law enforcement officer and in search-and-rescue operations.

First, as a responder and then later at what they call SAR coordination centers, my favorite assignments were the coastal rescue stations, though, is kind of crazy that is exciting and challenging, and that was definitely the thing that I love the most about my job I was lucky enough to get actually two assignments to the rescue station coastal rescue station. During my career, one of them was the third busiest station in the service at the time. So we were involved in drug seizures and all types of rescue cases through all kinds of things.

At you search and rescue crew motto was you have to go out, you don't have to come back and unfortunately there are some cases where colleagues were lost. My last assignment before I retired was in st. Louis and I. Actually hadn't finished unpacking my bags, but where it was paged out to respond to the explosion on the Alton fireworks barge on the fourth of July show. So that was a memorable start to st. Louis. I have found similarities working in emergency management that compared to the Coast Guard, the hours can be irregular.

The environment can be stressful situations, can change very quickly and you can find yourself required to make decisions very rapidly. They can affect a lot of people. It also demands teamwork and that's all very familiar territory. I was actually drawn to st.

Charles County for the opportunities and the jobs that it offered that, where I might be able to use the skills and experience that I had gained in the military I also like that, it's a very friendly and relaxed environment there's a lot to do there, conveniences that are close by and it's a reasonable standard of living and I, like the people that I work with here, they care about their jobs, they care about the communities and we enjoy working with each other I'm. Currently, a member st.

Charles, County Veterans, best practices working group, the best practices groups objective, is to enhance the employment and the retention of veterans. Working for st. charles county government. County government offers an opportunity for veterans to continue to serve. The public government can use the skills that veterans would bring to their jobs and it's mutually beneficial, and that also benefits the residents of the county as well.

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