UNITED STATES COAST GUARD AUXILIARY UNOFFICIAL NEWSLETTER
Launch 5 History Page
Click for video of Launch 5 in action 4th of July
A Brief History of Launch 5
Launch 5 USCG Auxiliary Facility #523269, the "Patrolman Walburger"
(Images by Bill Smith and members of the NYPD Harbor Unit)
For more detailed information about Launch 5, her history, restoration, and crew, go to www.Launch5.com
The traditional wisdom is that if you want to get something done, go
directly to the top. Sometimes, it's more effective to directly to the bottom,
as Greg Porteus discovered when looking for a boat for his Ossining, NY based
United States Coast Guard Flotilla.
In 1998, Greg Porteus, a retired NYS Trooper, with his cousin Phil, a 10
year USCG veteran currently serving with the NYFD Fireboats, was in Newark, NJ
looking at former NYPD Harbor Launch #13. Greg hoped to buy it to use as a
patrol facility for the Ossining Flotilla of the USCG Auxiliary. The price was
way too steep. They were about to head home when Phil ran into a fellow Coast
Guardsman, who said there was an abandoned NYPD Harbor Launch at the bottom of
the nearby Passaic River.
They immediately headed to the river, where Greg recognized the top of
the pilot house of what was subsequently identified as NYPD Harbor Unit Launch
#5, protruding from its resting place on the bottom of the Passaic.
Greg knew the distinctive shape, his father Gerald having spent 25 of his
30 year NYPD career in the elite Harbor Unit.
Launch 5, after serving 30 years with the NYPD
and appearing in the movies "Splash" and "Crocodile Dundee" was retired and sold
to private parties who abandoned the facility on the Passaic River, where it
was striped and sunk.
After extensive research and seemingly endless mounds of government forms
and paperwork, Greg and his crew of assorted family, cops, firemen, and
Auxiliarists were ready to begin the dangerous task of raising Launch 5 from 27
ft of muddy water. The ordeal that started with raising the boat was just the
beginning. Launch 5 went to a boat yard in Rhode Island for a new hull, then to
Brooklyn for new caterpillar diesel engines and a superstructure refit. Finally,
in June 2002,new Launch 5 was moved to her new home in Ossining, NY,
where the crew scrambled to finish the electrical work, install the required
safety gear, paint, seal, and clean to be ready for a July 4 USCG Aux. mission
in New York Harbor. Four years of hard work later, Launch 5 has passed
inspection and is now USCG Aux Operational Facility #523269.
Since that first patrol on July 4th, 2002, Launch 5 and her crew have saved seven people from drowning, responded to two marine fires, and when President Bush came to the memorial services at Ground Zero on September 11, 2002, became the first USCG Auxiliary Facility to be assigned to a Presidential Protection Detail.
Launch 5 is uniquely qualified for this type of work. The 52ft, 25 ton, former NYPD Marine Unit, Launch was designed by Phillip Rhodes, famous for the sailboat class that bears his name. This design was commissioned to address the need for a stable rescue platform that would be unaffected by the changing currents and hazardous conditions of New York Harbor.
Like all NYPD Harbor Unit Patrol Boats, Launch 5 is named for a Police Officer killed in the line of duty. Patrolman Henry Walburger was assigned to the 9th Precinct where, on July 27, 1964, he was gunned down in the line of duty, while protecting a family from an armed intruder. When Launch 5 was commissioned in 1966 she was named after Patrolman Walburger. After restoration, Greg decided to rededicate Launch 5 to Ptl. Walburger's memory. The original mahogany name placards were located, donated to Greg, and were affixed to the boat in honor of a fallen Police officer.
Officer Walburger's son grew up to be NYPD Detective Henry Walburger, who recently joined the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. Detective Walburger is studying to become Crewman Walburger and will serve on the boat that bears his father's name.
For more detailed information about Launch 5, her history, restoration, and crew, go to www.Launch5.com
(Images by Bill Smith)
Launch 5 on her first day in 1966 Dedication Ceremony pictures below.
Head -On View Then And Now
Launch 5
Pictures of the salvage and restoration below.
View from the rear of Launch 5
Launch 5 Pilot House
1924
1938
1944
1966
1971
Launch 5 at NYPD Harbor Unit Shop
Launch 5 dockside AUG 2002
Launch 5 in
Tarrytown AUG02
Launch 5 at sunset 2002
Launch 5 & Launch 3 nose to nose
Mayor Lindsey & Sgt. Howard Smith on Launch 5
Launch 5 in 1966 Launch 5 in 2002
Launch 5 in 1966 superimposed over Launch 5 2002
The above images courtesy of Bill Smith and www.Launch5.com
For more detailed information about Launch 5, her history, restoration, and crew, go to www.Launch5.com
(Greg Porteus On Launch 5
(Image by Bill Smith)
For The Whole Launch 5 Story Go To:
We Need You -- The Coast Guard Auxiliary is called upon to provide essential services to the Coast Guard as they focus more heavily on their military missions. We need all the help we can get. You needn't own a boat or be an experienced boater, since our missions are wide-ranging. For information about Auxiliary missions and the Auxiliary in general, go to our Join the Auxiliary web page. You will find there a form through which you can ask that a local Auxiliarist make contact with you to explore the ways in which you can assist Team Coast Guard.
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We Need You -- The Coast Guard Auxiliary is called upon to provide essential services to the Coast Guard as they focus more heavily on their military missions. We need all the help we can get. You needn't own a boat or be an experienced boater, since our missions are wide-ranging. For information about Auxiliary missions and the Auxiliary in general, go to our Join the Auxiliary web page. You will find there a form through which you can ask that a local Auxiliarist make contact with you to explore the ways in which you can assist Team Coast Guard.