Weather or Not : Where Rescue Swimmers Learn Their Stuff

Surf rolling off the Columbia River bar rises high over five Coast Guard rescue swimmers and their teachers standing in thigh-deep water at the mouth of a 50-yard-deep cave. They check their gear, then plunge into the swirling currents.

The surf surges in, then sucks back out as it fills and empties the cave. At one point, Petty Officer 3rd Class Brandon Sullivan is pushed 40 yards into the cave. He can’t swim against the current. Suddenly he is pulled right back to the cave mouth. It’s a feeling of powerlessness and panic until he learns to ride the surge.

From Sitka to Miami, Los Angeles to Port Angeles, rescue swimmers and helicopter air crews are drawn to the mouth of the Columbia River twice a year to train in the best of the worst conditions in Air Station Astoria’s Advanced Rescue Swimmer’s School.

“A lot of us will never see this kind of weather unless you come to this school,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Scott Trimble of Air Station Miami. “If you can handle it here, you can go into any weather with some confidence.”

The Coast Guard has about 270 rescue swimmers at 25 air stations around the country. Since the program began in 1985, the swimmers are credited with saving at least 300 lives.

Rescue swimmers based at Air Station Astoria are on duty at all times.

The rescue swimmers, known officially as “aviation survivalmen,” are trained emergency medical technicians who can start giving aid as soon as they are on scene. Off the Northwest coast, time is critical in surf searches or ocean rescues because of cold ocean temperatures.

Swimmers in the advanced school have already been through the Coast Guard’s grueling 16-week basic helicopter rescue swimmer course, where they teach technique and test physical and mental strength.

“It’s the mental part that’s the toughest,” emphasized Petty Officer 3rd Class Wil Milam, who now works out of Kodiak, Alaska, after a four-year stint in Astoria.

“They want to see who’s gonna quit. If you can’t handle a bunch of instructors yelling at you when you know they aren’t going to hurt you, how will you take it when you’re thrown out of a helo into 30-foot seas in the middle of the night into a bunch of people yelling at you to save them? That’s stress.”