[billyruffn]

On this day (July 3) several years ago, I contacted our local USCG station and inquired about the possibilty of undertaking crew training in the use of flares on the evening of July 4. They saw no problem with that and requested that I call their duty officer prior to launching any of the flares to tell them the number, type and location of flares I would be using.

After our town's July 4 fireworks display, I took several of my regular crew members way out on the tidal flats, called the local USCG station and requested permission to do some live fire training.

Permission was granted and we launched several red flares and tried out several red and white hand-held flares. It was good practice and I thought a good use of expired flares.

I should note that we didn't fire off any of the SOLAS parachute flares as I was concerned that they might drift back over the town.