Thank you to Frederick Baumeister III

of our Historians Committe for submittuing these news articles and commentary.

——– Original message ——–
From: Erick Baumeister <erickbau@pacbell.net>
Date: 6/22/23 1:28 AM (GMT-05:00)
To: halgbrown <halgbrown@sayvillealumni.org>
Subject: SHS Class of 1946: George De Piazzy, Jr

George had a very unfortunate death, but some good came out of it. He and a friend were part of the leadership of the Long island Beach Buggy Association. They were out by Moriches in a jeep but it was too rough to go out. They saw a sailboat having trouble, and took their small skiff out to rescue, capsizing along the way. They had previously rescued folks dozens of times and were well-skilled. The sailboaters tried in vain to rescue their rescuers to no avail.

George had called for help via their CB network, but a Coast Guard official had ordered the removal of the CB unit in their station that LIBBA had installed for the CG. So the calls for help went from CB to LIBBA who phoned the CG, and the knowledge that there were not just one, but 2 boats out there was lost in the rescue attempts. The sailboaters were rescued and completely distraught at the loss of their initial rescuers.

That fall as a result of these deaths and lobbying by local CG officials, Washington approved the CG monitoring CB ch. 21 for emergencies. Previously they had insisted on citizens using marine band radios, which was cost-prohibitive at a time when CB radios were all the rage and in widespread use, especially by the LIBBA.

(Click on news article to enlarge))