Rescue swimmer

A USCG petty officer pulls a pregnant woman from her flooded New Orleans home.

Arguably the most widely recognized team of rescue-swimmer operators, the elite United States Coast Guard Aviation Survival Technician (AST)/Helicopter Rescue Swimmer team is called upon to respond in the most extreme rescue situations. High seas, medical evacuations, downed aviators, sinking vessels, and hurricanes are some of the deadly scenarios that Coast Guard rescue swimmers are trained to handle. The Coast Guard's team of ASTs is composed of about 350 active-duty members, and just over 1000 members have passed the training to become Helicopter Rescue Swimmers since the mid-1980s. The training school has some of the highest attrition rate of any military school with about 80% of candidates washing out. For comparison United States Navy SEAL selection and training is about 75%[1]

AST School in Elizabeth City, North Carolina lasts for 24 weeks, and includes intense physical fitness, long hours of pool fitness and instruction, extreme water-confidence drills, and classroom instruction. The Coast Guard rescue swimmer training program is very challenging and is one of the toughest U.S. military training courses. Reportedly, only 75–100 Coast Guard personnel attend the school each year. The attrition rate in some years has been as high as 85%, although the 10-year average is just over 73%.[2] Prospective U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmers are physically conditioned to meet high physical fitness standards. About half of prospective candidates make it to AST "A" School. Upon graduation, candidates must attend seven weeks of training at the Coast Guard's Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) school in Petaluma, California, where ASTs become EMT qualified. Rescue swimmers at Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, Alaska, must maintain the EMT-Intermediate level of proficiency due to the remoteness of their operational area and the number of medical evacuations performed by that unit each year. Once stationed at a Coast Guard Air Station, apprentice ASTs must complete 6 months of qualification on their respective airframe before moving on to finish their rescue swimmer syllabus and becoming journeymen.

The Coast Guard holds a one-week Advanced Helicopter Rescue School (AHRS, formerly known as Advanced Rescue Swimmer School) at Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment, Washington, which is host to Air Force pararescuemen (PJs), Navy rescue swimmers, and foreign rescue departments as well. There, students learn the challenges of vertical-surface rescue, cliff operations, sea-cave traversing, and extreme-high-seas rescue. AHRS is considered the premier helicopter-rescue training school of its kind by most military and civilian rescue operators. [3]

The Coast Guard also trains a basic form of life-saving swimmers known as Cutter Surface Swimmers. These swimmers deploy only from ships and boats, and are tethered to a line handler stationed on board the vessel.

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.

An US Navy sailor swims toward a stranded boat near Guam in 2019

United States Navy and Marine Corps rescue swimmer candidates attend a four-week Aircrew School followed by the five-week-long Aviation Rescue Swimmer School in Pensacola, Florida. After graduating rescue swimmer school, students go on to their respective 'A' School, also in Pensacola, Florida. Navy air rescue swimmers were recently split into two separate ratings. Which rating a rescue swimmer attains depends on what type of helicopter they are to become qualified in.

Once Navy rescue swimmers have graduated 'A' School, they will go on to their respective Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS). Here crewman learn the various systems in the helicopter in which they will be flying. They are also expected to know various in-flight procedures, such as hoist-operating procedures and in-flight trouble-shooting. This syllabus can take from six to twelve months.

The last stop for a Navy rescue swimmer is SERE School (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape). Upon graduation from the brutal two-week course, they will go to the fleet as operational rescue swimmers. They will only be considered qualified Aircrewmen once they complete an additional 18-month PQS in their new squadron. Once they are qualified, they are eligible to wear Naval Aircrew wings.

Navy Surface Rescue Swimmers attend the four-week Surface Rescue Swimmer School in Jacksonville, Florida. 160th SOAR(A) has had personnel complete the course.

Surface Search and Rescue Swimmer assisting in the transfer of midshipmen

Women must meet the same physical, endurance, and performance standards as men in order to earn a qualification as a Coast Guard rescue swimmer.

The first female US Navy rescue swimmer was Catherine Elliott (Rizzo), HMC (AC) USN Ret. She was also the first woman to graduate from Helicopter Anti-submarine Squadron in Jacksonville, Florida, and become a rescue swimmer on December 16, 1983.

The first female Coast Guard rescue swimmer was Kelly Mogk Larson, who joined the Coast Guard in 1984 and later became the first woman to complete Navy Rescue Swimmer School, on May 23, 1986.[4][5][6] On May 2013, Karen Voorhees was the first woman to be advanced to chief petty officer in the rating of aviation survival technician since women were integrated into Coast Guard active duty service in 1973.[7]