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Barry Hastings stands on the search-and-rescue boat named in his honour.
Photo courtesy Richmond RCM-SAR
Hastings honoured for service on off the water
Published 11:22 PDT, Wed September 27, 2017
Barry Hastings is a humble man with a great
sense of humour.
Richmond’s Royal Canadian Marine Search and
Rescue, formerly known as the Coast Guard Auxiliary,
recently gave the Richmond resident a 35-year award and honoured him by naming
one of their rescue boats the BR Hastings.
Greg Miller, currently Pacific region chair
for the marine search and rescue organization, has worked with and known Hastings for
23 years.
“It was important to recognize Barry and show
his family how much we valued his contribution so we named that vessel in
honour of him. It’s an actual boat that goes out and does rescues,” Miller
says. He describes Hastings as a “caring, humble individual. He doesn’t like
being recognized for his efforts.”
Hastings’ day job was with the professional
Coast Guard, often as a radio operator.
“Years ago, we were sitting on a quiet watch
and these guys decided we needed handles to use on the CB radio.”
Each person’s initials were turned into a
nickname. Barry Hastings says his became, “ ‘Barely Human’ because I was a
practical joker. I’m still known as that,” Hastings says with a smile.
After their years on the water, today both
Hastings and Miller do most of their volunteering on land.
“It’s a young man’s game, waking up at 2 a.m.
to get up and bomb around the river and then get up and go to work,” says
Miller.
In addition to the numerous incidents on the
water that Hasting attended both as a volunteer and as a coast guard employee,
he was also the Richmond station training volunteer.
Reflecting on his volunteer time,
Hastings says it was a lot of fun and a lot of stress.
“But 35 years ago when I joined the
auxiliary, it was the total enjoyment of running those inflatables for search
and rescue. Then when the job was in teaching, the total enjoyment was meeting
all the volunteers, teaching and meeting all these people, seeing why they're
there.”
Hastings says that at the ceremony honouring him,
he only spoke very briefly.
“When I finished I touched the forehead, lips
and heart, to say my thoughts, my words, my heart will always speak of you.
Because that’s what these people meant to me. These people who sacrifice their
time, who put their live at risk, that others may live.”
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