Feature Story

Anyone who has served in a branch of the military knows the feeling of family closeness that develops with the people you work with and call fellow service members. We all know that when we get ourselves into a spot of trouble there are more people than you can count whom you can turn to for a shoulder or a laugh. That feeling continues even after you leave your service.

Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Steve Shetler, retired, felt that same kinship. He called upon the Coast Guard for bit of help, a last wish, if you will, to take one more ride aboard a Coast Guard asset. The retired finance and supply officer was diagnosed with stage four kidney cancer in 2008, only eight years after retiring from the Coast Guard, and all he wanted was to ride aboard a Coast Guard cutter.

“I originally thought maybe it would be nice to take a ride on one of the cutters here, but when I started talking with [Lt.] Josh Nelson and noticed he was a pilot, so I thought that might be worth trying,” Shetler said. “I didn’t think my request would be approved, but here I am.”

Shetler’s request was originally received by Sector San Diego and was quickly routed up to the Pacific Area commander in Alameda, Calif., for approval. When he initially contacted Coast Guard Sector San Diego, Nelson, a pilot at the sector and the public affairs officer, was determined to help make this request happen.

“From [Capt. Thomas Farris] on down I think every one of us really appreciated how special 30 years of service is,” Nelson said. “Shetler spent many years giving to others and this was a chance for us to give something back to him.”

Generally, being able to get someone a flight on a Coast Guard helicopter is not an easy task. It took Nelson coordinating with people all the way up to the headquarters level in Washington, D.C. But he said the effor was well worth it.

“Hearing Steve’s story and learning of his terminal diagnosis really motivated us to be able to provide him with something to take his mind off of the illness and painful treatments he’s had to endure,” Nelson said.

After finally vetting the request through all of the appropriate channels, and then a couple of delays due to bad weather, Shetler arrived at Sector San Diego on a foggy December morning. However, Shelter was in great spirits saying he was happy to have the opportunity to be around other Coasties once again. He entered the swimmer’s shop and Petty Officer 1st Class Dustin Skarra, the rescue swimmer on Shetler’s flight, helped fit him with a flight suite, helmet, safety vest and gloves, and walked with him to the waiting helicopter with pilots Lt. Amanda Sardone and Lt. Adam Young.

“It was an honor and a pleasure to fly with him,” said Sardone, one of the pilots for Shetler’s flight. “I was thrilled to have the opportunity to pay tribute to someone who has given so much to the Coast Guard during his 30 years of service.”

During the flight Shetler and the crew flew over Point Loma and Rosecrans National Ceremony where the helicopter conducted a flyover as part of the Wreaths Across America ceremony. The ceremony was one of more than 500 ceremonies conducted simultaneously at veteran’s cemeteries across the nation.

Since his diagnosis, Shetler has been through a handfull of surgeries and chemotherapy, but one would never guess he was sick by looking at him or talking with him. Before his flight, he tells his story to anyone who will listen about his 32 years in the Coast Guard; he laughs the loudest of anyone, and shakes hands with the strength of a bear. Like a lot of people who battle cancer, or any terminal disease, his attitude is still very optimistic and jovial. He jokes that his hair is silver because of the chemotherapy.

“Just last week, you see, it was a deep brown color. It’s because of that little pill that it’s this color,” he says, pulling at his short hair

Shetler enlisted in the Coast Guard during the height of the Vietnam War when young men had to make a decision; wait to be told to join the armed services or do it yourself. His uncle introduced him to the excitement of what the Coast Guard does when they spent the day on his yacht in the waters just off the coast of Newport Beach, Calif.

“We saw a Coast Guard boat on patrol and saw them board a boat with a group of beautiful women on board,” Shetler reminisced. “I thought, there’s the job for me!” And so in 1968 he enlisted and attended boot camp in Alameda.

“I remember walking off the bus, excited to be there, then looking over and seeing this – ship that looked as it if had seen better days,” Shetler said. “I asked the gate guard if that was one of the boats the Coast Guard used in World War II. He laughed at me! He said, ‘No! That’s one of the ships we currently use.’ It was an old 311-foot cutter and I thought to myself what am I getting myself into.” Shetler laughs at the memory, and goes on to say he never once regretted his decision to enlist. After boot camp Shelter spent most of his career on the West Coast between Humboldt and the San Francisco Bay Area. He now resides in Temecula, Calif., with his wife of 37 years and enjoys the benefits of retirement.

During the flight Shetler beamed like a child on Christmas morning. It didn’t matter that for the first part of the flight all he was able to see was the thick fog hugging Point Loma below. Or that he had to “cut circles” in the air as Sardone and Young waited for the go-ahead for the Wreaths Across America ceremony flyby. By the time he was back on the ground the retired warrant officer was speechless in his gratitude for his fellow Coasties at Sector San Diego to take him above the clouds and view the city from a Coast Guard helicopter.

SAN DIEGO – Chief Warrant Officer Steve Shetler, retired, prepares for his flight aboard an MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter at Coast Guard Sector San Diego Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010. Shetler dedicated more than 30 years to the Coast Guard as a storkeeper before retiring in 2000, and eight years later he was diagnosed with stage four cancer; he requested one last chance to get underway with the service he spent so many years with. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Allyson E.T. Conroy.	SAN DIEGO - Chief Warrant Officer Steve Shetler, retired, (left) prepares for his flight aboard an MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter at Coast Guard Sector San Diego, as rescue swimmer Petty Officer 1st Class Dustin Skarra goes over the basics of the safety vest Shetler will wear for his flight Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010. Shelter dedicated more than 30 years to the Coast Guard as a storkeeper before retiring in 2000, and eight years later he was diagnosed with stage four cancer; he requested one last chance to get underway with the service he spent so many years with. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Allyson E.T. Conroy.
SAN DIEGO - Chief Warrant Officer Steve Shetler, retired, (left) prepares for his flight aboard an MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter at Coast Guard Sector San Diego, as rescue swimmer Petty Officer 1st Class Dustin Skarra goes over the emergency and safety procedures in the helicopter before their flight Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010. Shetler dedicated more than 30 years to the Coast Guard as a storkeeper before retiring in 2000, and eight years later he was diagnosed with stage four cancer; he requested one last chance to get underway with the service he spent so many years with. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Allyson E.T. Conroy.	SAN DIEGO – Chief Warrant Officer Steve Shetler, retired, looks down from an MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter at a ceremony at Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010. Shetler dedicated more than 30 years to the Coast Guard as a storkeeper before retiring in 2000, and eight years later he was diagnosed with stage four cancer; he requested one last chance to get underway with the service he spent so many years with and was given the opportunity to take part in the fly-over for Wreaths Across America . U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Allyson E.T. Conroy.