ClassX Video Lessons Youtube Channel SmarterEveryDay What Gear Does a US Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Carry? – Smarter Every Day 279
Welcome to an exciting exploration of the world of US Coast Guard rescue swimmers, as featured in the Smarter Every Day series. In this article, we’ll delve into the fascinating role of these elite aviation survival technicians, uncovering what it takes to become one, a surprising skill they possess, and the essential gear they carry during missions.
US Coast Guard rescue swimmers, officially known as aviation survival technicians, hold one of the most challenging and prestigious positions within the military. Their primary mission is to save lives in various perilous situations, often involving water rescues. These highly trained individuals are equipped to handle emergencies ranging from stranded sailors to injured hikers on cliffs.
To illustrate their vital role, consider a scenario off the coast of Kodiak, Alaska. A disabled vessel with three crew members is being battered by the surf. The rescue swimmer jumps into the turbulent waters, inflates survival suits, and ensures the safe hoisting of the sailors into a helicopter. This is just one example of their remarkable capabilities.
Becoming a Coast Guard rescue swimmer is no easy feat. After completing boot camp, candidates attend a specialized training program designed to prepare them for the rigorous demands of rescue swimmer school. This six-month program is known for its high attrition rate, with only about 27% of candidates successfully graduating. Each year, only 15 to 30 new rescue swimmers join the ranks, contributing to a nationwide team of approximately 350 active swimmers.
In addition to mastering emergency medical care and earning EMT certification, rescue swimmers undergo continuous training to maintain peak physical fitness and readiness for any situation.
One lesser-known aspect of a rescue swimmer’s training is their proficiency in sewing. At Air Station New Orleans, where rescue swimmers like John Calhoun and Joe Keef are based, they maintain life support equipment, including flight suits and life preservers. This skill ensures that all gear is in optimal condition, ready for any mission.
When preparing for a mission, rescue swimmers carefully consider the contents of their survival vest. The gear they carry is crucial for both their safety and the success of their rescue operations. Here’s a glimpse into what they typically have:
This gear ensures that rescue swimmers are prepared for the unpredictable challenges they may face during missions, whether in calm waters or extreme weather conditions.
The world of US Coast Guard rescue swimmers is both thrilling and demanding. Their dedication to saving lives, combined with their specialized training and essential gear, makes them indispensable in emergency situations. As we continue to explore the inner workings of the Coast Guard, we gain a deeper appreciation for the bravery and skill of these remarkable individuals.
Stay tuned for more insights into the Coast Guard’s operations, including an upcoming feature on training experiences in New Orleans. Thank you for joining us on this educational journey, and remember, you’re getting smarter every day!
Engage in a role-playing exercise where you take on the role of a US Coast Guard rescue swimmer. You’ll be given a scenario, such as a rescue mission off the coast of Alaska, and must decide which gear to use and how to approach the rescue. This activity will help you understand the decision-making process and the importance of each piece of equipment.
Participate in a fitness challenge designed to mimic the physical demands of a rescue swimmer. This could include swimming, running, and strength exercises. Reflect on the physical requirements of the role and discuss the importance of maintaining peak physical fitness for rescue operations.
Attend a workshop where you learn basic sewing skills, similar to those required by rescue swimmers for maintaining their gear. Practice sewing techniques on fabric samples and discuss how these skills contribute to the readiness and safety of rescue operations.
Conduct a detailed analysis of the gear carried by rescue swimmers. Research each item, its purpose, and how it contributes to mission success. Present your findings in a report or presentation, highlighting the critical role of each piece of equipment.
Participate in a basic emergency medical care training session. Learn about the medical skills that rescue swimmers must master, such as CPR and first aid. Discuss how these skills are applied in real-life rescue scenarios and their importance in saving lives.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
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Okay, that was intense! I’m Destin, and this is Smarter Every Day. I want to go back and look at what you just saw and explain what’s going on. This is me, and this is John Calhoun, a US Coast Guard rescue swimmer. He’s pulling me towards a helicopter, putting me in a basket, and steadying it until it’s lifted out of the water. This was part of a training session where I was the person they practiced saving. We’ll dive into that specific experience in a future video, but today I want to talk about what John Calhoun, the rescue swimmer, has done for the last 20 years.
Coast Guard rescue swimmers, or aviation survival technicians, are among the most elite positions in all military branches. It’s possible that, like me before this experience, you haven’t heard of aviation survival technicians. In this video, we’re going to answer three questions:
1. What is a US Coast Guard rescue swimmer, and how do you become one? It’s brutally challenging.
2. We’re going to visit an air station and learn a secret skill that Coast Guard rescue swimmers have, which I did not see coming but makes sense when you think about it.
3. We will learn what is in the kit of a rescue swimmer when they jump out of a helicopter. If you think about it, if you’re about to jump out of a helicopter, what kinds of things would you want to have with you to help save someone and keep yourself alive?
This continues our Smarter Every Day deep dive series into the inner workings of the US Coast Guard. We’ve learned about how the Coast Guard is set up, how it handles distress calls, and what they do at their stations, including their boats and search and rescue strategies. I’m really excited to explore the aviation side of what they do—the helicopters, the technicians, the mechanics that keep them running, and the pilots that fly them. There is so much to discover!
Okay, I think one of the best ways to understand something is to see it in action. To answer our first question, what is a rescue swimmer? I want to look at some footage I found online. This is some incredible footage that feels like a cool action movie, so let’s check it out.
Here’s a good place to start: someone is stuck on the pylons inside the surf line and can’t get out. The rescue swimmer deploys, swims over to them, and pulls them out so they can be hoisted to safety. This is off the coast of Kodiak, Alaska, where a disabled vessel with three crew members on board is being battered by the surf. Because the boat was tossed around so much, they couldn’t just hoist the sailors off the boat, so the rescue swimmer had to jump into the water and inflate their survival suits to trust their lives to the rescue swimmer, who got them up into the chopper. All three sailors were rescued.
Rescue swimmers don’t just save people from the water. Here we see them rescuing two trapped surfers from a cliff in Oregon. In another case, a young man fell partway down a cliff and sustained serious head injuries. The rescue swimmer goes down, brings him up, and begins treating him on the way to the hospital. The Coast Guard also pulls up another fisherman who fell and broke his foot while walking along a cliff, and another rescue of a woman who got stuck on a cliff.
In some cases, aviation crews are called to medevac injured firefighters surrounded by fire on a steep mountainside in California. They hover over a flaming forest, dealing with heat updrafts and smoke entering the cockpit, but they manage to extract the wounded firefighters before they are overrun by the flames.
In Florida, a boat broke down while trying to flee from an incoming hurricane. The rescue swimmer had to get into the water and then up on the helicopter, working in 20 to 25-foot waves. After storms, air rescue teams often work day and night, plucking people out of houses and cars, sometimes while battling fast-running water.
Rescue swimmers operate in all kinds of weather, from beautiful blue waters down south to the edge of the Arctic up north. Here we see a training exercise in Alaska, where a rescue swimmer climbs onto an iceberg. These rescue swimmers, both men and women, are truly remarkable.
Now that we’ve seen some incredible footage, let’s talk about how to become a Coast Guard rescue swimmer. We’ll talk to Joe Keef, a rescue swimmer at Air Station New Orleans, who is training a group of young candidates hoping to become rescue swimmers.
Once you go through boot camp, you attend a specialty school in the Coast Guard. These candidates are in a four-month program designed to prepare them for the rigors of rescue swimmer school, which is a brutal six-month program with a high attrition rate—73%. Less than a third of the people who start are able to graduate. Only 15 to 30 new rescue swimmers graduate each year, and there are usually only about 350 rescue swimmers operating nationwide at any moment.
They learn basic emergency medical care and become EMTs. After that, they complete a six-month apprenticeship program. Once you’re a rescue swimmer, the training never stops. They always have to be in top shape.
Now, let’s explore that secret skill that all rescue swimmers have. To do this, we’re heading back to Air Station New Orleans to the survival shop, where they maintain the helicopters. This is where John Calhoun and Joe Keef are based. One thing people don’t know is that part of their training involves sewing. They repair flight suits and make bags, among other things.
In the survival shop, they take care of the station’s life support equipment, from sewing flight suits to inflating life preservers and inspecting float containers that keep the helicopter afloat in case of a water landing.
Now, let’s answer our third question: what’s in their kit? Rescue swimmers take care of their own survival vest, and they have to think about what they would want with them when jumping out of a helicopter. John will first show us what the aircrew has and then what the rescue swimmer has.
This is the life vest for the aircrew, which includes flares for day and night, a strobe light, a webbing cutter, and a personal locator beacon. The personal locator beacon is registered to their unit and helps locate them in case of a crash.
For the rescue swimmer, they have a Triton harness, an accessory hook, and a bone mic for clear communication over the helicopter noise. They also have survival supplies, including a desalination kit for turning seawater into drinkable water and a knife for various uses.
I have more videos with the Coast Guard coming up, including my training experience in New Orleans. I appreciate your support on Patreon, which helps me create the content I want to make. Thank you for spending your time with me learning about this fascinating subject.
That’s it for now! I’m Destin, and you’re getting smarter every day. Have a good one!
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This version removes any informal language, personal anecdotes, and specific details that may not be suitable for all audiences while maintaining the overall message and structure of the original transcript.
Rescue – The act of saving someone or something from a dangerous or distressing situation, often requiring specialized knowledge or equipment. – In physics, understanding the principles of buoyancy and fluid dynamics is crucial for designing equipment used in water rescue operations.
Swimmer – An individual who is proficient in swimming, often requiring an understanding of fluid mechanics and body dynamics. – A physicist might study the motion of a swimmer to analyze the forces acting on the body in water.
Training – The process of learning and practicing skills, often involving repetitive exercises to improve proficiency and understanding. – Physics students undergo rigorous training in laboratory techniques to accurately measure and analyze experimental data.
Gear – Equipment or apparatus used for a specific purpose, often involving mechanical components that transmit motion and force. – The engineering students designed a new type of gear system to improve the efficiency of energy transfer in machinery.
Safety – The condition of being protected from or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury, often requiring adherence to specific protocols. – In a physics lab, safety protocols are essential to prevent accidents when handling hazardous materials or equipment.
Emergencies – Serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situations requiring immediate action, often involving quick decision-making and problem-solving skills. – Physics students are trained to respond to laboratory emergencies, such as chemical spills or equipment malfunctions, with calm and efficiency.
Fitness – The condition of being physically fit and healthy, often related to the ability to perform specific tasks or activities efficiently. – Understanding the physics of biomechanics can help improve an athlete’s fitness by optimizing their movement and energy use.
Certification – An official document attesting to a status or level of achievement, often required to demonstrate competence in a specific field. – Many physics graduates pursue certification in specialized areas like medical physics to enhance their career prospects.
Skills – The ability to do something well, often acquired through training or experience, and essential for performing complex tasks. – Developing analytical skills is crucial for physics students to solve complex problems and conduct research effectively.
Operations – Activities involved in the functioning of a system or process, often requiring coordination and management of resources. – The operations of a particle accelerator require precise control and monitoring to ensure successful experiments in high-energy physics.
