OC pepper spray

Coast Guard Boarding Officers (BOs) and Boarding Team Members (BTMs) carry pepper spray as part of their LE gear when conducting safety inspections. In order to ensure that all Coast Guard LE personnel fully appreciate the ramifications of deploying OC, they are required to receive full face exposure to it as part of their qualification process.

I picked this subject for my newest post because I stumbled upon a heated argument on one of the Military.com/Fred's Place message boards. I like visiting the boards there once in a while because it provides Coasties with a rare opportunity to exchange thoughts and opinions from throughout the usually isolated parts of our service.

Anyways, the thread was started by an individual who said his Chief told him he had to receive his full face exposure (we call it "being OC'd" or "being sprayed"). His argument was that Law Enforcement is an optional collateral duty and from there he received a myriad of replies, panging from "man up and get it over with" to "good for you, way to stand your ground". I'll reserve my own opinion and instead describe what is was like when I was OC'd.

I was still an SMBM and it was the spring of 2004. I had attended a two week course at Boston which covered all of my tasks for becoming a qualified BTM, all of them that is, except OC. It was an off going morning for my duty section and my fiance was waiting at my apartment so we could go back to New York together. I ran into the training officer in the hall and he told me before going on liberty I had to get OC'd. I had been asking to get it over with for a while and although it wasn't the best morning I could have asked for, I was still eager to put it behind me.

I put on a dirty uniform (the spray doesn't wash out very well) and an LE belt with a training pistol. I asked if I needed "keepers" (loops that hold your gun belt in place) and was told not to worry about it. The BO that would be spraying me told me what to expect. I already knew what I was in for. A week before I was the role-player for another E-3 when he was sprayed. I was told to not be overly aggresive, just to try and take his sidearm.

The crew gathered around, both for support because they knew what I was in for and because the bizarre spectacle was sort strange from of morale (hard to explain, sorry). I closed my eyes and the BO yelled out "OC! OC! OC!" He put two streams across my eyes and one across my nose. "Okay, Casey. Open your eyes!"

It took a split second for the burning to start. Once it did, my eyelids clamped shut and became swollen. I knew the role player was on his way to disarm me so I used my left hand to force one eye open while I blanketed my pistol with my right hand. I saw a blue blur moving towards me and used my few reaming moments to do our standard call for assistance (you're simulating that you were exposed to pepper spray during a boarding so you are supposed to yell to the rest of the boarding team and let them know you've been sprayed so they don't rush into the same situation unprepared).

The guy going for my gun was about about five inches taller and thirty pounds heavier. While going for my gun, he was actually able to lift me off the ground by my gun belt. After what seemed like forever, the BO called "break" and told me draw my weapon. I reached into the holster and found nothing. Laughter ensued from the onlookers as I realized somewhere along the way I had been disarmed.

A cooler of cold water and fifteen minutes in front of a fan later, and I was given a ride home where I was met by an angry fiance who rapidly shifted gears from "why are you late?!?" to "Oh my God! What happened?" In about three point five seconds.

Being sprayed is a rite of passage in the Coast Guard. It's an opportunity for new guys to have something in common with the rest of their unit and a chance for the rest of the unit to give the new guy a pat on the back and help him through his decontamination stations.