THE ONE WHO WAS BORN BY THE SEA ...

... - In the heavens, on land and on the sea, the state border of our country lies and is guarded, - in a mentor tone, Raivoenk lectured the pre-conscripts. - But you will serve in the troops where I will send you. That is, according to the military ID, in which, again, I will write your number of the conscription team. We have a special selection of border guards, and not all of you meet the requirements of conscription into these troops. So, get ready to become tankers, but infantrymen are better, except for those who wish to enter military institutes. Are there such?

The question posed by the Head of the regional department for defense affairs - in common parlance the military commissar - was not idle - the Mobilization Directorate of the Ministry of Defense not only tore three skins from him, but for a shortage of people who wanted to enter military schools could demote them in their posts - and this is a shame and ... In short, the military commissar first of all performed the most important duty - to forge the officer cadres of the Kazakh army. How to deal with this case? This is the beginning of a new century, but there are centuries - millennia, which turned the previous foundations of life, in which the officer is one of the most prestigious social niches. Yes, military service is difficult, such was at all times. But it is highly paid, endowed with many rights and privileges, respected by the people and loved by girls.

But all this was when life was unhurried and steadily grayish.

And now in the country there is general market hysteria, everyone wants to trade and have three hundred percent of net profit. It doesn’t matter what to trade, with whom and where, just to quickly saturate the womb, buy a red jacket, hang a thick gold chain around the neck, and lure the girls with a Mercedes brought from a German dump of old cars. And to serve in the army to the horsemen who tried on business props, oh how they did not want to...

- So, I repeat the question: who wants to study military science, so to speak, in a real way? - a military commissar who served for two decades under Soviet banners could not abandon Lenin’s slogan.

- May I ask a question? - a young man with a very intelligent face raised his hand.

- Where are you from, future warrior! - again, as a teacher, the officer said moralizingly.

- I am from the city of Aralsk. You said that we also have a border at sea, but where are they taught to be sailors-border guards?

- Do you want to become a naval officer !? - was delighted and even smiled as a military commissar. - That’s right, you were born by the sea. Were grandfathers, great-grandfathers fishermen? Is this the call of the ancestors, then? - the boy barely had time to nod his head in agreement. - Come with me! Fill in the form now ...

“Here’s luck, here’s luck ...”, - the Head of the recruiting office was mentally scrolling through the chance to receive gratitude from his superiors - few people aspired to get into the naval institute, which had recently been opened in sovereign Kazakhstan, in the city of Aktau, and he just found a candidate

The officer led the boy from Aralsk to the office without suspecting that Providence, in general, smiled to a greater extent not at him, but at Yerbolat.

***

... A business trip to the Caspian was pleasing and stressful at the same time: on the one hand, a resident of the foothill Almaty rarely managed to see the sea, let alone splash in it; on the other hand, Manghystau was known as a harsh land with a sharply continental climate, and has always been so.

«We’ll have to fry in the sun during the day, but in the evening there will be the sea and only the sea!» - I reassured myself.

- ... Welcome to our dostarkhan, aha! - my companion looked at me on the second shelf of the compartment and smiled very benevolently.

- Rakhmet! - I immediately agreed, as I was very familiar with the customs of the Kazakhs: refusal to take part in the dostarkhan organized by them is an insult.

We got into a conversation, and I learned that my fellow traveler’s name is Kairat, he is a sailor, and what a border guard! I reminded him that he is the heir of the first Kazakh sailors who served in the Navy during the Great Patriotic War, and he told me about his military service on the Sakshy ship.

Kairat did not talk about himself and his sailors’ exploits, more and more he recalled a certain lieutenant.

- Despite the fact that he was only a couple of years older than our conscripts, we respected him as a father. The lieutenant was fair, but strict. Have you ever seen a border ship, and our boats? They are beast machines...

- Come on, don’t lie.

 

 

- Why do you offend? You know, as we said: the border service is an unusual service, - the guy got excited, - This is exactly what it is. We detain almost everyone, uh-uh…

Kairat thought about the period of detention and finally blurted out:

- ... Every week, they caught violators of the border regime and entry into our water area. As a rule, we leave the port in the dark, early in the morning or vice versa in the evening, for some reason poachers of all countries like to catch our fish in the dark, - he grinned conspiratorially, - but we are not asleep either. What was their expectation at the beginning of the 2000s? What are our old motors, against their powerful brand new Japanese suspensions? And here we are on our «Sakshy» - in a moment we overtake their motorboats.

- And if they don’t stop? - I warm up the topic...

- So we have a cannon and machine guns on board, and every sailor has a Kalashnikov. And do you think, that  we only knew how to scrub the deck? Nah ... There may be  non-shooting sailors somewhere, but just not in the border troops.

- Have you ever taken violators?

- Yes, we took a lot with our lieutenant.

It was evident that Kairat was not from a breach breed, every time he wondered how to name the number

- In short, to be honest, I personally took only one, and our lieutenant has an impressive list. Yes, and, probably, he is not  a lieutenant now, but a captain ... ten years have passed since I demobilized, and he came to the ship with me in 2009 ... So we immediately had a case ...

I will not retell the emotional story of Kairat, who was heated with memories of the service - the oral speech is long, on paper it loses its expression, and I did not remember all the naval expressions and names - whatever the lie, the sailors will read it - they will laugh. I will be brief.

... September 2009 turned out to be catchy. Feeling unprecedented profits, fishermen from all five states rushed into the sea, which form the sea border on the waters of this world’s largest lake-sea. In order to preserve the wealth of the native Caspian, the border guards in vests went over to reinforced protection of the state border. Within the coastal 12-mile zone, small boats patrolled tirelessly around the clock. The ships went to service for a day or two and went beyond the horizon. «Sakshy» was one of the most modern and fastest in the Coast Guard, but the load on its crew was extreme.…

On the border days, which we are talking about, the ship’s commander carefully peered into the faces of the crew - under special control, young lieutenant Yerbolat Kalishev, a recent graduate of the naval institute, and a troika of young men who had just arrived from the training center.

«They won’t let you down, if suddenly? ...» - thought the experienced sea wolf. But in the conditions of the frontier maritime service, whether you are at least three times a wolf, even a bear itself, you can cope with violators of the sea line only by coordinated actions of the entire crew.

“This is not for you to act on land - caught up, hooked, put his muzzle in the grass and knit his hands. At the same time, the dog will make eighty percent of the arrest ...”, - every time during the exercises, he said to his subordinates. From the land lexicon, the experienced captain used only Suvorov’s «Every soldier must know and perform his maneuver flawlessly!» More man did not argue with the great commander-landlord. In all other respects, he firmly believed, and served as well, that the service of a sailor-border guard is based on an impeccable and well-developed maneuver of all the forces and means of the ship

... The day was cloudy, a thick fog was spreading over the surface of the water - the most thieves’ day, they say about such weather.

- Mister Commander on the radar target, - reported the officer of the watch.

-Ask on the international channel: who, why and why walks in our waters? the captain ordered.

A minute passed, two, three ... The border guards did not seem right to play in silence further.

- Request again ...

And again - a minute of silence, then a short report:

-An unknown vessel is silent!

- Start rapprochement, - the captain ordered shortly as a shot.

As usual, most of the poachers do not fulfill the legal requirements of the border guards, they hope to leave, or sit out in a thick fog.

 But modern border ships are equipped with everything necessary to «see through» the fogs.

- Open warning fire!

After the shot into the air, the poachers began to fuss - they realized that they had been spotted, and now all the hope is that the border guards have a weak engine, and they have a Japanese Yamaha.

Someone else’s fishermen tried to start the engines, and did not hear the next command.

- Aiming, on the motors of the watercrafts of the border violators - fire! There was no third shot - we surrendered!

Later it turned out that citizens of neighboring Azerbaijan were engaged in illegal fishing in our waters...

 

 

The entire crew of the ship was rewarded for clear well-coordinated actions during the detention of violators of the Kazakh sea line. Among the awardees there was a sailor named Kairat and a lieutenant, whom he called Yerbolat with gratitude for his joint service 10 years later.

- After six months of service, Kalishev and I again became participants in the detention of violators. It was in May 2010 while patrolling the middle part of the sea. Once again, the radar found another target.

The lieutenant by that time was already in command of the border ship. Now, without receiving an answer to the requests, he ordered:

- Start convergence!

The poachers rushed from the border guards at full speed. Only myriads of water particles swirled after their boat. But Kalishev also does not have a fishing scow, but a modern ship, lovingly made at a shipyard in the city of Uralsk, was equipped not with a frail diesel engine, but with an engine with a turbine.

They chased the violators and held them at gunpoint for two hours. At full speed, the ship, going out on the oncoming wave, stood, as they say, on its hind legs. The motorists threw off the speed and again went to the maximum, from which the ship at times resembled a stretched nerve. Nerves were also at the limit of each crew member.

And only the commander of the ship, Yerbolat Kalishev, showed his subordinates with all his appearance: to stand in places, not to relax, but not to let go of your nerves - we will win.

The poachers were not the first to survive the chase...

When Kalishev brought four Azerbaijani ships to the port at once, in the holds of which several tons of sturgeon fish were stored, they started talking about him as a promising commander and a skillful border guard.

…

- And then there was another case, - Kairat, who had entered into the taste of the storyteller, did not calm down. - One night we noticed the reflections of a lantern, in the sea at night the light is clearly visible at a great distance. But, with every attempt to get closer, the poachers left, it is difficult for a large ship to hide its presence, it is too noisy. Then our starley, already by that time, ordered to launch a boat with an inspection group. And he controlled his actions by radio station. And again we took the violators

- Well, what about you, Kairat, how did you distinguish yourself? He said that he personally had  taken one.

- Well, it was not so much, of course it was dangerous - our fishermen misbehaved. We thought that in shallow water we would not approach them. Even through binoculars it was clear that they were grinning maliciously. And Kalishev imperceptibly lowered the boat and  we rushed towards the fishermen. They - tear, on dry land. And we follow them. Our legs weren’t tired, on the contrary, they missed the ground, and then the prospect was lit up with the medal «For distinction in protecting the state border.» In short, they caught up in a moment, laid him down, and tied his hands. Oh, it’s a pity that our compatriots got caught, it’s a shame

- Did you get the medal?

- Yes, I say, our detainees turned out to be local residents. And they don’t give medals for their own, unless they are, of course, sold out spies. I’d better tell you how once Kalishev and I, together with an inspection group, spent three days on an Azerbaijani fishing transport vessel. The weather was bad at sea and the ships of the poachers took refuge in the Fetisovo Bay. There were nine would-be fishermen on the vessel. Yerbolat, together with the commander of the ship, was on duty on the navigating bridge, I was on duty next to the mechanic, the rest of the crew were kept in the cockpit. So together they whiled away the forced «idleness». But the next awards overtook us.

- It turns out that you did not have a service, but continuous chases - a detective.

- The way it is. Eh, I told you, I poisoned my soul; I wanted to go back to the ship again. If Kalishev is still driving at sea, and not sitting in his office, even now I will go to his carriage...

... The business trip was coming to an end when, by chance, I ended up at the headquarters of the KNB Border Service Department in the Manghistau region.

It should be noted that I wrote down Kairat’s stories from memory in a notebook that I always carry with me. To be honest, I already forgot about our compartment balusters, but here a man in a naval uniform entered the office where I had to be.

I will not retell for a long time how, over the course of several days, I had to catch the Head of the border guard and training department of the third division of the Coast Guard, who, as it turned out, became not even a drop, that is, a lieutenant captain, but a captain of the third rank, which corresponds to the rank of Land Major. But our meeting took place,   and I made it at least so, that you now read this story.

 -I ask for five minutes, Mister Captain of the third rank,” I turned to the hero of this story, who unexpectedly appeared before me in all the naval officer’s rank and dashing bearing.

“I’m listening to you,” the Captain of the third rank said without a shadow of posturing.

 

 

In short, he approved, with minor amendments, everything that my fellow traveler told me. And he added to this a few more interesting memories of service at sea and battles with violators of our line.

And this time he was not talking about himself, but about the sailors, thanks to whom, thanks to their skillful actions and courage, the poachers from the wrong side never took possession of our national property.

In case of a meeting, he asked to convey his regards to Kairat, said that he remembers him and everyone with whom he had to take a sip of salty Caspian water more than once.

Such a grateful and noble Commander serves to this day in the maritime segment of the KNB Border Guard Service.

Saying goodbye, I wished Yerbolat Kalishev to receive the next title of «kapdva» ahead of schedule.

“Hardly,” he chuckled. - I already received a rank ahead of schedule. And in peacetime, officers are not given such awards twice...

Wow, this is a «peacetime» for the border guards!? In my opinion, they are always at the forefront. Only they are fired at less often here than at the front. It is not for nothing that it was said: Border is a battle line!