Public Employee Press

Part of a series

At home and abroad
Supporting the troops

Capt. Timothy Forsyth, a lifeguard supervisor in Local 508, supplied the front line from Kuwait and now trains troops at home.

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

U.S. Navy Reserve Capt. Timothy Forsyth, a member of Lifeguard Supervisors Local 508, worked alongside Kuwaiti harbor pilots in 2006 to bring U.S. ships in and out of a port to help with the war in Iraq.

But while he was deployed to the Middle East for only March of that year, Forsyth remains a vital part of the war effort.

As a reservist in the U.S. Navy Merchant Marine Reserve Group, Forsyth dedicates much of his time to instructing U.S. Navy personnel bound for Iraq in shipboard firefighting and small-arms techniques. He also trains midshipmen in ship piloting and navigation.

He has been involved in the war on terrorism from the beginning: Immediately after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, he transported Police Officers, Firefighters and supplies on the city’s waterways for several days.

A Lt. Lifeguard assigned to Wolf’s Pond Park Beach on the south shore of Staten Island, Forsyth joined the city workforce in 1978. He is also an attorney, whose legal training served him well years ago when he took the city to court for refusing to pay for his time off in the Navy Reserve, in violation of the law. He won the case, and years later, reservists in the city workforce are benefiting from his pioneering effort.

The Navy Reserve rotates groups of 34 ship pilots with the Merchant Marine Reserve Group each month to the Kuwaiti port. Escorting several ships a week into and out of the port, they work with the Kuwait Port Authority and private Kuwaiti pilots. He said he enjoyed the opportunity to learn about the Arab culture by working with his Kuwaiti colleagues.

In Kuwait, the ship pilots often dress in civilian clothes and are required to carry unloaded 9mm Beretta pistols, which Forsyth points out they can load in seconds with one of the three magazines they carry. While working at the port, which is only 100 miles from Iraq, the ship pilots are stationed at a U.S. Army base.

On the base, Forsyth was able to keep in touch with his wife and daughter by using the phones and computers in the officers club.

“It certainly was never boring there,” Forsyth said. “Tension was always high. You are in a war zone. You receive combat pay.”

As part of a massive support structure for the military at home and abroad, Forsyth said he didn’t believe it was appropriate to comment about the politics of the war. But he said, “Personally, I feel that a lot of money could be better spent on alternate energy rather than pursuing our dependence on oil.”