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The wind was howling and blowing at speeds of up to 60 knots. The sea was rumbling and slapping against a black hulled vessel. The wind sprayed ocean water along with rain into the faces of the crew aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Woodrush, a 180-foot sea-going buoy tender. The crew was staring into the face of a storm because that's what Guardians do.

These Guardians were responding to a 'mayday' call. A boat was taking on water somewhere in Sitka Sound. The Coast Guard had lost communication with the caller, so the crew stared into the vast darkness fighting the stinging spray they felt upon their faces. For one of the crewmen, boatswain mate 1st class Ricky Johanson, that night aboard the Woodrush was just the beginning of his Coast Guard career. And that night left a definite impression.

"I remember standing amidships on the boat deck staring into the darkness searching for anything in distress with my elbow hanging over the edge," Johanson, 1st lieutenant for the Juneau Coast Guard, said 21 years later. "I was approximately 15 feet above the water line when the ship rolled off one of the waves and as the ship rolled I could have reached down and touched the water."

The Woodrush's crew searched that entire stormy night and never found the distressed boat. Although during the search, at approximately midnight, a life raft was found and a rescue swimmer was deployed into the water to investigate the raft.

"I can still remember the anticipation of watching the swimmer swim to the raft and the empty disheartening feeling I felt as the swimmer shook his head notifying the rest of the crew of negative findings," Johanson said.

A Tlingit Native Alaskan by birth and by heart, Johanson was born in Juneau and raised in Hoonah.

Serving his entire 21-year Coast Guard career in Alaska, Johanson signed his enlistment papers on July 5, 1987. He was one of the last recruits who signed up in Juneau before the recruiting office moved to Anchorage.

Since signing up, Johanson has been involved in hundreds of search and rescue cases and various other missions in and around Alaskan waters. Although Johanson was serving in Alaska during the time of arguably the biggest and most devastating marine casualty in Alaskan history, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, he did not play a significant role in the clean up efforts because the Woodrush had just arrived in Bellingham, Wash., for a dry-dock and repair period.

During his time aboard the Woodrush, from 1987 to 1990, he responded to the 1989 Cape Decision Lighthouse fire that damaged the tram dock, boat house, hoist house, paint shed and helipad. The crew of the Woodrush transported firefighters and other rescue volunteers from the nearby town of Petersburg and helped in rigging fire fighting equipment. The lighthouse and surrounding area has since been repaired and is still in operation.

After his stint aboard the Woodrush, Johanson transferred to Station Ketchikan where he advanced to boatswain mate 3rd class. He was involved in a search and rescue case in Clarence Strait where sea cucumber divers resurfaced after a diving excursion and found their fishing vessel, Bandito, stuck in heavy seas and taking on water. The divers called for help and Station Ketchikan responded in their 41- foot Utility Boat and started towing the Bandito.

His next assigned unit was Air Station Sitka as a boatswain mate. This was described by Johanson as being forgotten by the Coast Guard detailer. Apparently other boatswain mate 3rd classes stationed in Ketchikan were receiving orders but not Johanson. He called his detailer and the only billet available was a position at Air Station Sitka. He served there from 1991-1994.

His main job at the air station was to drive the practice boat for the helicopters during rescue exercises.

After his time at Air Station Sitka, he was given the choice to serve time in the Lower 48 or to work at the Integrated Support Command Kodiak firehouse. He chose Kodiak and was stationed there as a boatswain mate 2nd class from 1994-1998. During his time at the firehouse, he was involved in fighting a major fire that broke out at the Star of Kodiak cannery. The cannery is housed inside a beached ship. The April 4, 1997 fire resulted in several ammonia releases estimated at 100 pounds each. Firefighters including Johanson fought the fire for approximately 18 hours.

"At this point I chose to stay in Alaska and serve at the fire station in Kodiak because it kept me and my family in Alaska," Johanson said. "I wanted my kids to go to school and finish school in Alaska."

Johanson said he hasn't had a problem with staying in Alaska because he thinks most other Coast Guardsmen don't want to come to Alaska and the detailers know he likes it up here and wants to stay up here. In fact he always mentioned on his dream sheet that he was from Alaska and didn't mind the gloomy weather or the small remote towns.

After his tour in Kodiak he was stationed in Juneau at the small boat station from 1998-2002. After four years in Juneau, he transferred back to an Aids-to-Navigation vessel homeported in Cordova. He was aboard Coast Guard Cutter Sycamore, a 225-foot sea-going buoy tender, from 2002-2005.

After his tour aboard the Sycamore, he returned to Station Juneau where he is currently serving. During this tour in Juneau, he has responded to several more cruise ship groundings, including the Empress of the North in 2007 and the Spirit of Glacier Bay in July 2008.

Johanson is scheduled to be in Juneau until summer 2010. He is currently a petty officer first class and has plans of advancing to chief petty officer prior to transferring or retiring. Either way he wants the trend of serving in Alaska to continue and plans on retiring in Alaska.

"I have a good understanding of the area, and I understand the resources available," Johanson said. "I have a lot of experiences to draw from during my service here in Alaska because until I returned to Station Juneau I had never done the same job twice."

He thinks the aids-to-navigation parts of his career have been the most rewarding because he has worked on aids in areas ranging from Dixon Entrance north covering all of Southeast, Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet in South Central Alaska and Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Chain.

"We accomplished a variety of things from fixing buoys, building and fixing shore-aid towers and still participating in other Coast Guard missions like search and rescue," Johanson said.

"There is a certain satisfaction in every job in the Coast Guard but with aids-to-navigation you are more proactive and can visually see work accomplished but with search and rescue there is a lot of waiting for something to happen."

• Levi Read is Petty Officer 3rd Class in the U.S. Coast Guard.