Coast Guard searches for person in the water near Freeport, Texas
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HOUSTON The Coast Guard is searching for a 22-year-old male in the water at Surfside Beach near Freeport, Texas, Sunday.
Missing is Elijah Posada, U.S. Air Force, who was last seen wearing a maroon shirt.
Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston watchstanders received notification of a 22-year-old Posada who was swimming approximately 100-feet from shore when an individual reported seeing him being pulled by a rip current. Watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast and launched a Coast Guard Station Freeport 29-foot Response Boat-Small boat crew and a Coast Guard Air Station Houston MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew.
‘Yes, I Can’
The first Coast Guard swimmer lifesaving mission unfolded on 10 December 1987, when at 1936 a 26-foot fishing vessel named the
Bluebird requested assistance. The duty helicopter crew at Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, Alaska, quickly boarded HH–3F number 1486 and prepared to fly directly into a quickly developing storm at near-hurricane strength. Lieutenant Commander John Whiddon, Lieutenant Greg Breithaupt, Aviation Machinist’s Mate First Class Carl Saylor, Aviation Electronics Mechanic Third Class Mark Milne, and Aviation Support Equipment Technician Mechanical Second Class Jeff Tunks were airborne in 17 minutes, immediately buffeted by 60-knot winds, snow, and ice.
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Successful search-and-rescue operations require crew resource management through standard procedures, effective training and detailed debriefings. By Mario Pierobon | December 16, 2020
Estimated reading time 12 minutes, 23 seconds.
Search-and-rescue (SAR) operations are often seen somehow as an elite branch of the helicopter world that requires a higher level of skill or ability as compared to other kinds of flying. Like all specialized operations it does require consistent, high-level training in a set of distinctive skills and disciplines, but this should not mean that search-and-rescue is the exclusive prerogative of particularly skilled pilots.
Alex Pollitt, helicopter SAR pilot and crew resource management (CRM) trainer, believes that what will set apart those pilots who do search-and-rescue really well from those who just do it are not “flying” skills, but rather “soft” or “non-technical” skills.
(Coast Guard Historian’s Office)
After Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King assigned sea-going development of helicopters to the U.S. Coast Guard on 15 February 1943, naval aviation s first designated rotary-wing pilot, Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Frank Erickson, tested and accepted the Navy s first helicopter, an HNS-1, at Bridgeport, Connecticut on 16 October later that year. Thus began a 74-year journey featuring man’s ingenuity, skill, and daring as industry and technology constantly improved the aircraft.
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