Importance: High

"MAYDAY - MAYDAY - MAYDAY! MV Marazli to US Coast Guard! Not good English. Seaman injury. Need go hospital. MAYDAY - MAYDAY - MAYDAY" Coast Guard Group San Francisco determined that Russian linguistic support was immediately required and contacted George Barantseff, Flotilla 12-11NR, a member of the Auxiliary Interpreter Corps. Barantseff had previously been instrumental in two Russian language SAR cases and on both occasions the distress calls were due to injuries and there was a language barrier. In all three cases the injured parties were airlifted via USCG helicopters and despite very severe injuries (e.g.. brains visible through head tauma) the seamen survived, in part due to the accuracy of the interpreter's ability to facilitate radio communications between the ship's doctor, the USCG Flight Surgeon, the helicopter pilot, and Group San Francisco. In the winter of 1999, Barantseff was deployed aboard USCGC BOUTWELL for a 35-day Alaskan Patrol (ALPAT). The cutter encountered 40 foot seas, 75 knot winds and minus 25 degree wind chill factors on the North Pacific and Bering Sea, but he enthusiastically maintained his post on the bridge, monitoring the Russian fishing fleet's radio traffic.

In the summer of 2000, Barantseff was deployed aboard USCGC HAMILTON, again for 35 days to the Maritime Boundary Line (MBL) in the Bering Sea. This time the FV MING CHANG was boarded after a hot pursuit for illegally fishing 1 1/2 miles inside the US EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone). A joint Law Enforcement operation with a patrol vessel from the Russian Border Service was brought to a successful conclusion - the radio communication between the cutter and the Russian vessel was conducted in the Russian language and lasted for 12 hours because the MING CHANG inadvertently fled into the Russian prohibited zone.

That winter saw Barantseff aboard USCGC ACUSHNET for four weeks on another ALPAT, again in severe storms but he maintained his position at the radio on the bridge. His fourth deployment was aboard USCGC MUNRO for a 15-day ALPAT in Aug-Sept 2003 and despite gale force winds and 25 foot seas which threatened to prevent the training exercise, a successful joint SAR/LE simulated operation was conducted between the cutter and the Russian Border Service frigate VOROVSKY . Barantseff was again at his post on the radio of the cutter's bridge and was the voice and ears for both vessels' captains. He has flown several times to Russia via USCG C-130 and commercial airlines for duty both as a consultant and as a Russian linguist at diplomatic meetings. While in Russia he participated with Distict-17 officers in a first-ever flight by USCG officers aboard a Russian AN-72 patrol jet on a reconnaissance sortie out of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia.

Barantseff received Boarding Officers' training at the USCG North Pacific Fisheries Training Center (NPFAC) in Kodiak, Alaska and was the lead Russian interpreter/translator of the instructional material which he co-presented with the NPFAC commanding officer to a delegation of Russian Border Service officers. He has often provided interpreter services at Distict-17 (Alaska), and was attached to District-9 (Great Lakes area) during a visit by Ukrainian Border Service officers. He was the personal Russian interpreter to the Commandant at HQ USCG in Washington DC during an unprecedented official visit by the admiral's Russian counterpart, General K.V. Totsky.

He is frequently called on by various elements of US Coast Guard to translate Russian documents or to provide consultation on sociological or linguistic differences between the United States and Russia. As an Auxiliarist and on behalf of the Coast Guard on official business he has flown over 120,000 commercial air miles, more than 8,500 miles on USCG C-130, approximately 500 miles on a USCG Falcon jet (CG-01), over 200 miles on a Canadian Forces CP-140, 500 miles on a Russian Border Service AN-72 patrol jet, and on two sorties as an observer/listener aboard USCG HH-65A helicopters from the decks of cutters at sea, as well as being picked up by the helicopter on St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea and flown to USCGC HAMILTON while it was underway in some very choppy weather.

Altogether he has volunteered almost 4,000 hours as an Auxiliary interpreter/linguist. Officers and crew of the cutters inquire as to how they should refer to him: "Auxiliarist? Sir? Mr. Barantseff? Colonel? (he is a retired O-6 reserve colonel)" to which he responds: "Please call me George".

He was born in Kobe, Japan, to Russian parents who fled their homeland following the Revolution and Civil War, there he studied French in Catholic and Protestant Mission schools. He is a 1991 Outstanding Graduate of the National Defense University, Ft McNair, Washington, DC, National Security Management Course. He is retired from the Federal Civil Service and lives in San Francisco, California. George Barantseff is a naturalized United States citizen and currently serves as National Staff Branch Chief - Pacific Area, USCG Auxiliary Interpreter Corps.