A young Boy's sweet payback

[H.A.]

Orlando Morel was 6 years old when he and his mother left Haiti on a crowded small wooden boat destined for America. Now 24, Morel remembers the blue of the ocean everywhere. And the hunger.

When a piece of bread fell into the water, Morel quickly scooped it up. "I will never forget that taste," he said, recalling the salty, soggy bread.

Nor will he forget when the Coast Guard showed up in a white boat and rescued him, his mother and other passengers.

Eternally grateful, the rescue led Morel to join the Coast Guard, and on Wednesday he will graduate from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut. He will serve on a cutter out of Florida whose mission will include migrant interdiction in the very waters where Morel was rescued nearly two decades ago.

"I can put myself in their shoes," said Morel, who can still speak Creole.

He says he would probably be dead had the Coast Guard not found him and his fellow migrants, who were lost and out of food. So, he's excited at the prospect of saving lives, just as his was saved.

"I don't think that anything I can do will be enough as payback," Morel said.

New Coast Guard grad was rescued at sea as a boy - AM 870 The Answer

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Serving off the Florida coast will bring into contact with migrants fleeing poverty and trying to restart their lives in America. Many, however, will be sent back to their home countries.

He acknowledges having mixed feelings about that, but he says it has to be done because there must be a policy to regulate how many people come into the United States.

"What I tell myself is I was given an opportunity and my life was saved by the Coast Guard," Morel said. "I feel it's better to be alive and shipping back to Haiti than being abandoned out at sea and pretty much starving to death or dying of dehydration."

Elian Gonzalez was sent back to Cuba for political reasons unrelated to immigration policy.

Elian Gonzalez

 

[trackwhack]

Elian Gonzalez was sent back to Cuba for political reasons unrelated to immigration policy.

Elian Gonzalez

I remember this one. when law prevails over common sense, not because america is the land of the free and cuba is the communist nightmare that its supposed to be, but simply because of the trauma of the whole incident on the family.


btw, the US coast guard rescued Morel and he made the US his home. he wont be helping too many like himself make US their home if the new immigration rhetoric gains any more traction. rather his job may well be to ensure such boats never get here or the people on such boats are put in other that are sent back to where they came from.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

btw, the US coast guard rescued Morel and he made the US his home. he wont be helping too many like himself make US their home if the new immigration rhetoric gains any more traction. rather his job may well be to ensure such boats never get here or the people on such boats are put in other that are sent back to where they came from.

I don't know about immigration rhetoric per se beyond the concern about violence and Mexican drug cartels, and the US-Mexican border.