Peter Broda, Coast Guard Veteran

Base Aviation Manager, Med-Trans Corporation

Peter Broda served over two decades protecting our shores in the Unites States Coast Guard. Broda’s career ranged from service as a Deck Watch Officer aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast to aviation duties as a Rescue Chopper Pilot stationed in Kodiak, Alaska. Broda joined the GMR team in 2011 as a Med-Trans Pilot in Berkeley County, New Jersey. His experience as Executive Officer at the Coast Guard’s Air Station in Atlantic City, NJ led to Broda‘s current position as the Med-Trans Base Aviation Manager in Charleston, South Carolina.

Broda comes from a military background and he knew he wanted to serve in the Coast Guard since he was a boy. “My father was a combat medic in the U.S. Army’s 249th Engineering (Combat) Battalion in World War II. He was involved in General Patton’s breakout in Brittany, the Battle of the Bulge in Luxembourg, the Rhine River crossing at Nierstein/Oppenheim and the invasion and occupation of Germany. In the 1970s, my oldest brother was a Public Health Service doctor assigned to the Coast Guard base in Portland, ME, and another one of my brothers was a merchant mariner on the Great Lakes. The importance of the Coast Guard being Semper Paratus (Always Ready) for my family and growing up near Lake Erie in Ohio gave me positive impressions of the Coast Guard from a young age. I was especially drawn to the fact that the Coast Guard is as important to the nation in peacetime as it is in wartime.”

Broda’s son also worked as an EMT with GMR before his acceptance into a MD/PhD program. “I was so proud to work for GMR at the same time as my son Ted who was an EMT for Lifeguard Ambulance,” said Broda.

Areas of Service

Commander Broda retired from the Coast Guard just shy of 25 years. “I joined Med-Trans for their emphasis on safety and training. The skills and disciplines I apply every day in this position with GMR are a direct result of my military experience,“ said Broda. “Coast Guard pilots are some of the best instrument pilots around. The type of helicopter I flew in the Coast Guard could sometimes be flown single pilot, so I had single pilot and instrument flight rules experience before joining Med-Trans. I retired as the Executive Officer (second-in-command) of one of the Coast Guard’s largest air stations in Atlantic City, NJ. This leadership experience prepared me to be a Base Aviation Manager with Med-Trans.”

During his career, the Coast Guard took Broda to numerous countries around the world:

  • Russia
  • China
  • Japan
  • Jamaica
  • Haiti
  • Dominican Republic
  • Mexico
  • Cuba
  • Canary Islands
  • Azores
  • Bermuda
  • St. Lucia
  • Panama
  • Cayman Islands
  • American Samoa
  • Australia

Greatest Military Accomplishment

Broda says serving in the Coast Guard is like serving with family, and he feels that same sense of family with GMR. During Broda’s time stationed in Kodiak, Alaska, he describes his greatest military accomplishment - “During my two years in Kodiak, I was able to fly the full gamut of missions in the challenging environment of Alaska— fisheries patrol from Coast Guard cutters on the international boundary between Russia and the U.S., search and rescue missions in the Kodiak archipelago, Alaska Peninsula, and the Bering Sea, supporting Coast Guard aids to navigation and marine safety teams in remote areas, and providing MEDEVAC support for U.S. Army