Rescue me

Help on the water
Pompano Beach, FL
December 2011
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When a U.S. Coast Guard Eurocopter HH-65 Dolphin flies past at full throttle and lowers a basket to a boat in the distance, whatever you may have been doing on the beach can take a back seat for a while. As I stood in the sand and watched the chopper do its thing, I hoped that it was just a training exercise, that no one was actually in any kind of danger.

Which is a bit of a laugh, because even if this had been an exercise, the very act of hovering mere feet off the water and yanking someone off the deck of a pitching vessel is enough to make even the strongest stomach a little - okay, a lot - queasy. I don't know how these crews do what they do, but I'm intensely glad that they're there.

I never did find out what happened out on the waves that day, as there was nothing in the papers or online in the few days afterward. The optimist in me is going to guess they were honing their skills, ready for the day when the real thing would inevitably draw them back to the skies over the angry sea.

Your turn: Have you ever had first-person experience with emergency services personnel?