A call from a concerned family member spurred Lt. Jess Gallant and her team to set off for a frozen lake and a family of four stranded on their 30-foot sailboat-batteries dead, limbs numb, stomachs grumbling. She was just weeks out of US Coast Guard boot camp on her first-ever search-and-rescue mission. She helped escort the family onto a 45-foot response boat and into the survivor's compartment. Later, while watching the family warm themselves over hot cocoa and soup, she knew the Coast Guard was her calling. Today, at 32, Gallant is the commanding officer of the Coast Guard station in New Orleans, the second-largest base of its kind. "When I graduated from college, I thought I wanted a much different career path than the one I am currently on-something corporate and predictable," she says. "I'm glad things panned out the way they did. Every day is a new case, a new adventure, a new challenge."
展开▼
