Impossible Repairs

The teams at the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) stations and bases along the Northeastern seaboard battle daily to fix and maintain their fleet of ships, aircraft and life-saving gear. Mike embeds with them in the shops, on the docks, in the air and on the sea to discover what fixes it takes to keep us protected, defended and safe.

Mike Davidson works with the teams at the enormous Port of Savannah to fix the machines that keep this place running. Boasting multiple massive cargo terminals, an impressive mega-railway system and some of the biggest ship-to-shore cranes on earth, the massive operation relies on its hard hat heroes to keep things running safely and smoothly. Major upgrades are taking the port’s container ship operations to a whole new level, and Mike’s on the team. He works with specialized crews to lift and move three, retired three-million-pound cranes to make room for even bigger ones, while digging in with crew on major repairs to other cranes, vehicles and machines that keep goods flowing. The shipments of essential goods flowing through the port never stops, and neither does the pressure to get these machines back up and running and this port functioning.

At Cirque Du Soileil in Las Vegas, Mike embeds with the talented teams that maintain the amazing machines behind Cirque Du Soleil's stage shows.

With wildfire season ahead, Mike works with an aerial firefighting company as they fix and convert aircraft into firefighting machines, including the transformation of a 1960's C130 plane from aged military aircraft into a stateofthe art waterbomber.

Mike works with the U.S. Army in Germany inside the massive fix facility The MAK, Maintenance Activity Kaiserslautern, as teams repair over one hundred Bradley fighting vehicles, then embeds with troops in a massive two week long battle exercise.

Nevada has over 40,000 abandoned mines posing dangers. Mike joins contractors for a week to secure five sites. Alongside biologists, they explore and document wildlife. Reaching these isolated mines requires barges, helicopters, and bulldozers.

Mike joins the Assault Craft Unit 5, the U.S. Navy's team for Landing Craft Air Cushions (LCACs); LCACs carry heavy vehicles and troops onto beaches; Mike helps fly & fix an overhauled LCAC during a U.S. Marines beach assault training mission.