Rescue swimmer

Military occupation

Rescue swimmer is a designation given to rescue specialists, most commonly in the service of the military. Rescue swimmers usually are charged with the rescue, assessment, and rendering of medical aid to persons in distress in the sea, on the land, or in the air. This highly specialized position is extremely challenging.

The first female U. S. Navy rescue swimmer was HMC Catherine Elliott (Rizzo). She was also the first woman to graduate from Helicopter Anti submarine Squadron in Jacksonville, Florida, and become a rescue swimmer on Two women, Kelly Mogk ’86 and Jody Vander Hyden ’89, were graduates and swimmers following the Navy’s course in earlier years. Now the Navy has over 30 female rescue swimmers. As of 2022, Erica Gibson, a 17 year enlisted Sailor, became the first female aviation Navy Search and Rescue (SAR) swimmer to promote to the rank of senior chief petty officer. Currently assigned to Helicopter SeaCombat Squadron 28, Gibson is the only female Senior Chief in the Navy and serves HSC 28 as the Leading Chief Petty Officer.

United States Air Force rescue swimmers are called pararescuemen (PJs) and perform sea based and land based rescues, although the rescue swimmer portion of their duties is sparsely used. Pararescue is a notoriously rigorous CSAR (combat search and rescue) unit, with eight out of every ten candidates failing the indoctrination course. This gives PJs one of the highest attrition rates of any of America's Special Operations Forces. PJs are an elite special operations component, engaging in combat search and rescue. They are trained as combatants and paramedics, operating on air, sea, and land, and are considered, along with Air Force combat controllers, among the most elite of the U. S. military's Special Operations forces. During war, they rescue downed pilots, special operations troops left behind, and other stranded military men and women. Pararescuemen are also active in peacetime, retrieving NASA space equipment, and also performing rescues in all types of natural disasters, though they get much less recognition for this role due to the small numbers of people rescued. The PJs are often sought out for use by other branches of the military because of their high quality training and versatility. For example, Air Force pararescuemen can be attached to elite units to provide their expertise for various operations.

Royal Canadian Air Force Search and Rescue Technicians (SAR TECHs) serve as rescue swimmers. They are military aircrew who deploy from rotary or fixed wing aircraft in any environment or climatic condition. They will locate and penetrate the site, then treat and evacuate casualties. Qualified SAR TECHs have opportunities for advanced training and promotion. SAR TECHs who demonstrate the required knowledge, experience, and leadership skills may also be selected as an instructor at the Canadian Forces School of Search and Rescue (CFSSAR), at 19 Wing Comox, British Columbia. The Basic SAR TECH course is 11 months in duration. It includes the following phases: ground phase, medical phase, winter operations phase, arctic operations phase, dive phase, sea operations phase, parachuting operations phase, mountain operations phase, and operational/consolidation phase. The final operational phase is used to evaluate the individual's ability to use all previously learned skills and will be the deciding factor in awarding the qualification to Wings Standard.

Most rescue swimmers in Denmark are Danish Air Force personnel from the Danish Transport and Rescue Squadron (Squadron 722 or in Danish Eskadrille 722), and operate from AgustaWestland EH101 helicopters. These rescue swimmers have to be fully qualified as helicopter technicians before they start a 4 week course at the Danish Frogman Corps, followed by a 2 week first aid/PHTLS course. Other rescue swimmers are members of the Danish Navy and operate from Westland Lynx Mk 90B helicopters based on Thetis class ocean patrol vessels in the waters around Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and, occasionally, Iceland. These swimmers are generally recruited from the diver corps (which has a 6 to 10 week diving course from the Danish Navy Diving School) and receive basic helicopter crash survival training. Some coast based rescue swimmers with high speed boats are stationed around the coasts of Denmark. These rescue swimmers are trained by either the Danish national guard or Danish Maritime Safety Administration (Danish: Farvandsvæsnet).

In Japan, air sea rescue operations are mainly conducted by the Japan Coast Guard (JCG), the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) and the Japan Air Self Defense Force (JASDF). In the JCG, divers ([[:ja:潜水士#海上保安庁の潜水士) have been conducting public safety diving. There are now two additional categories of rescue swimming specialists: mobile rescue technicians ([[:ja:機動救難士) and the top tier Special Rescue Team (SRT). These are specially trained divers with some advanced techniques including abseiling, and some are also qualified as emergency medical technicians (comparable to Advanced EMT in United States) to provide medical treatments. In the JMSDF, helicopter rescue swimmers (HRS) are selected from assistant nurses and trained as both aircrew and divers. In contrast, paramedics ([[:ja:救難員) of the JASDF, Japanese counterparts of the United States Air Force Pararescue, are not always medical professionals, but they must complete the Airborne Ranger Course of the Japan Ground Self Defense Force to acquire mountain rescue and combat search and rescue capabilities.

The release of the 2006 motion picture The Guardian, starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher, introduced viewers to this small group of elite rescue workers. A rescue swimmer saves Tom Cruise's character Maverick in Top Gun. The rescue swimmer's name is John Baker, the name of a former Navy SAR School Instructor at NAS North Island in the early 1980s. The Japanese film series Umizaru depicts the development of the main character, a coast guard officer, as a rescue swimmer. In the anime television series Yomigaeru Sora – Rescue Wings , the main character is a rescue helicopter pilot, but rescue swimmers also appear as regular members in each episode. The actress who played the main character in the live action film based on the same work, Yuko Takayama, was the orphan of an Air Self Defense Force medic who was killed in the line of duty. On the History Channel reality show Top Shot, one of the marksmen is U. S. Navy rescue swimmer Jamie Franks. U. S. Coast Guard rescue swimmers attracted international attention during the rescue operations following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, and surrounding areas. It was reported that in the first five days following Katrina, Coast Guard crews performed more than 33,500 rescue and hoist operations of Katrina victims stranded on rooftops and in flood water. This was reportedly more than the Coast Guard had rescued worldwide in over 50 years. President George W. Bush awarded the active, reserve, auxiliary and civilian employees of the Coast Guard a Presidential Unit Citation and ribbon for their response to Hurricane Katrina. While Katrina brought domestic and international news coverage to Coast Guard rescue swimmers and their crews, their story was first shown on television in a series of 1999 specials on Discovery Channel, Coast Guard: Rescue Swimmers and Coast Guard: Helicopters to the Rescue. Along with covering the history and the demanding training rescue swimmers must complete, the specials also feature dramatic on scene footage of several heroic rescues. The most viewed rescue swimming event in the media was a marine rescue done by rescue swimmers during the Webtel. mobi Intercontinental Challenge on November 25, 2009. The Webtel. mobi Intercontinental Challenge was the first attempted intercontinental flight between Africa and Europe by man using jetwings, and it was broadcast live worldwide on television. Swiss pilot Yves Rossy, the person who had accepted the Webtel. mobi Intercontinental Challenge, had to ditch into the North Atlantic Ocean midway through the 30 mile flight from Morocco to Spain after his wing was destabilized by a large cumulonimbus cloud. After being located, an emergency marine rescue was undertaken by rescue swimmers live on television, with the Associated Press reporting that more than two billion people had viewed the rescue worldwide on the day of broadcast. The rescue swimmers for this emergency were Stuart Sterzel and Garth Eloff, both former special operators from Special Forces. Stuart Sterzel was also the CEO of Webtel. mobi, the company staging the event. A third standby rescue swimmer was John Brokaar, also a former special operator from Special Forces. The rescue took place in extremely dangerous conditions in the North Atlantic, with the downed pilot being located in less than 15 minutes after his ditched entry into the ocean, in an area where the average time for locating a person in the water is four hours. Once located, he was extracted from the water in a flawless marine rescue. The success of the rescue was credited to the rescue rehearsal carried out on the day before the event, which was also televised worldwide as it happened. The rehearsal took place during a rough sea state and high winds, and was done to confirm that the rescue swimmers would be able to carry out an effective rescue in the dangerous conditions in the area, which include very strong rip currents, high swells, and cold water temperature in the North Atlantic. On the day of the rehearsal, the rough sea state and high winds forced Sterzel and Eloff to exit into the North Atlantic Ocean from the skid of a Bell helicopter at a height of over 40 feet, which causes significant water entry shock on entry. The water entry shock was reduced only by their succeeding in entering the water at an optimal entry angle despite the high wind and an unstable exit platform. This was attributed to their previous training and experience.