DARING BRIDGE RESCUE

DOUBLE-DUTY BOATSWAIN NOTCHES DARING BRIDGE RESCUE

The area around Coast Guard Station Emerald Isle is defined by the water. The network of small towns here, threaded together by rivers and waterways, are some of the earliest colonial settlements in the New World. Pirates plied the waters here, and Blackbeard's last ship lies in the water only about 12 miles up the coast from the Coast Guard station. Heroes famous and unsung have been made on the water here for centuries - heroes like BM2 Nathan Jones.

Jones, 26, was born in New Bern, N.C., and has been serving the community since he signed on as a junior firefighter at the age of 16. When he was 17 years old, he enlisted in the Coast Guard. "I just liked helping people," replies Jones when asked why he joined. Upon completing basic training, he received orders to nearby Station Hobucken, N.C. about 35 miles from New Bern.

After Hobucken, he stayed in the area with orders to Station Emerald Isle. He's been volunteering with #7 Township, Fire-Rescue Station 21, throughout his Coast Guard career. When he is not on Coast Guard duty, he is on call for the fire department.

It was a quiet morning for Jones on Dec. 22, 2006. He was on leave working with his father-in-law, painting walls in a new-construction house when his fire department pager went off.

"I kinda look forward to the pager going off," he says. "It's why I joined in the first place." But this was no house fire, and he was directed straight to the scene of the incident instead of to the firehouse to suit up. A woman had jumped off New Bern's high-rise Neuse River Bridge, about an 80-foot drop to the water. Miraculously, she was still alive.

Responders had already thrown her a heaving line when Jones arrived on scene, but she was too weak to hold on and hypothermia was beginning to set in as she struggled to keep her head above water. The on-scene coordinator knew someone had to go in after her; Jones, who had rescue swimming training from the Coast Guard, volunteered to go.

"There were four or five other guys who volunteered to go in, I just had the best training for this," says Jones. "Any one of those guys would have gone in the water."

Jones strapped on rappelling gear and was lowered in jeans and a T-shirt to the river below. Once in the frigid water, he detached from the line and swam the 100 yards to where the woman was floundering. He gave her a floatation device, and then pulled her back to the bridge, against the current. "The water was only about 51 degrees, but I had adrenaline pumping," says Jones. He spent about 20 minutes in the frigid water.

After he reached the bridge, a New Bern City fire boat arrived at the scene and pulled Jones and the woman from the water. The woman was taken to emergency medical workers standing by, where they began treating her for hypothermia. She was taken to a local hospital to receive further treatment.

"The fact that he risked his own safety to save another does not surprise me," says BMCS Scott Hooley, officer-in-charge of Station Emerald Isle. "I am proud of his selfless action. The training he has received from his service in the Coast Guard undoubtedly assisted him with this rescue, but his actions off duty on this day reflect his true character."