Static for a Hero : Scout Uses CB in Rescue, but Some Want to Pull His Plug

A 20-year-old Explorer Scout who helped save six people aboard a boat stranded off Dana Point said Tuesday his homeowners association wants to fine him for using his citizens band radio in the rescue.

On the night of Dec. 28, Richard Wright and two other CB operators answered a distress call from an 18-foot pleasure boat. Through questions and communication relays, they guided a Coast Guard helicopter and Orange County sheriff’s patrol boats to the stricken vessel five miles offshore.

But Wright said his good deed did not impress the homeowners group.

“The president of the association called our manager, and he notified my mom that they want to fine me $150 for using my CB radio inside the association grounds,” said Wright, a member of Explorers Post 540.

Ron Meixell, president of the 124-member Moulton Parkway Assn. No. 1, confirmed that the group’s board will decide at its meeting next week whether to fine Wright. Meixell contended that Wright was notified of the possible fine when he used the CB a week before the rescue.

Meixell said Wright had promised three months ago to stop using his CB radio after several condo owners complained that it interfered with their cordless telephones and television reception.

“I think he and his mother are simply using this rescue thing to help them out,” Meixell said.

But Wright said he was notified of the possible fine shortly after he used the CB to assist in the rescue.

The Coast Guard is clearly on Wright’s side.

In a letter to the association, a ranking officer called it “ludicrous to fine the boy for saving lives.”

“If it wasn’t for his helping us,” Petty Officer Randolph Reid added Tuesday, “it could have ended up in serious injury or loss of life to the boater and his family.”

It’s not the first time Wright has won praise for his actions.

In 1992, he was recommended for a certificate of valor from the Orange County Fire Department after he kicked open the door of a burning condo and searched for people possibly trapped inside. He found no one but broke out a window to help a family’s dog and hamsters escape.

In October, he and other Explorers who are part of an emergency services squad assisted with emergency vehicles at the Laguna Beach fire. A week later, the same post volunteered to help line muddy streets in Laguna Beach with sandbags after rainfall caused damage from flooding.

His latest adventure involved two other CB operators, Richard Bianchini, a Mission Viejo teen-ager, and another CB user known only as Shorty.

The skipper, Jose Santana of Anaheim, was aboard the vessel with his wife, two children and two other adults without flashlights and only a few blankets, Reid said.

Through a series of questions and communication relays, the three radio operators were able to approximate the boat’s bearings and forward the information to the Coast Guard.

Wright said he kept an open line to the Coast Guard while relaying messages through the two CB radio operators. From time to time, the signal was weak, Wright said, and one of the three operators would lose or gain the signal during the three-hour rescue operation.

“We first got the Mayday about 5 o’clock,” Wright said. “And it took us about an hour to find out where the (boater) was. The whole thing ended like close to 8 at night.”