TEMPERATURE GOES DOWN, HEROES RISE UP

Story and photographs by Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Eggers

HOUSTON - For days excited weather forecasters notified Texas residents of a massive cold front sweeping across the country, a front that would drop the average low temperature in Houston more than 10 degrees. Later in the morning of Nov. 30, the front slammed into the Texas and Gulf Coasts. Coast Guard crews flying in HH-65C Dolphin helicopters were launched on multiple rescue calls because of the severe weather system that brought winds up to 57 mph and temperatures as low as 31F.

"Any pilot that does search and rescue, especially with a hoist, your worst case (scenario) is going to be a sailboat in high winds," says Coast Guard pilot Lt. David Potyok, talking about the rescue of three men from a disabled sailboat near Baycliff, Texas, on the evening of Nov. 30.

The 31-foot sailboat Paradise called the Coast Guard for help after their sails were ripped and their anchor was lost due to the high winds. The winds were so strong the boat drifted about a mile and a half during the rescue.

"With the winds... in between each hoist the boat drifted so much from the initial start point that we would lose contact with the boat," says Potyok, an 8-year Coast Guard veteran.

The drifting sailboat also posed a unique challenge for rescue swimmer Petty Officer 2nd Class Raul Aguilar, who was lowered into the chilly waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The winds whipped the rigging and mast around so violently it made a hoist rescue from the boat's deck impossible.

Aguilar unhooked himself from the helicopter's hoist cable and began to swim towards the boat while the rescue basket was attached. On this dark and freezing night, Aguilar was going to have to swim during the entire rescue. He instructed the men to jump in the water, one at a time, so they could be placed into the rescue basket and hoisted up into the helicopter.

"For me, this is probably the furthest I've ever swam on a case throughout my career,"  Aguilar says. "I had to chase the boat, probably a couple of football fields."

As if the high winds and turbulent seas weren't enough of a challenge for the crew, the sailboat had drifted so far it was now near the shoreline, and an unlit pier.

Just as the second survivor was hoisted into the helicopter, the sailboat slammed into the pier. The waves wedged the sailboat against the pier and swept across its decks.

The rescue swimmer struggled against the onslaught of waves trying to reach the remaining survivor, still onboard the now heavily damaged boat.

"You're thinking about the survivor, you got to get to them. You're just swimming as hard as you can. But the waves were trying to push me under the pier and pushing me against each pylon," says Aguilar.

The third man, with the help of people on the pier, was able to jump from the sailboat's mast to the pier.

"It got really dicey at the end," says Potyok. "It was a very challenging case. It was night time, high winds, a sailboat in tossing seas, cold temperatures... everything was there, including a great outcome of three survivors.

Aguilar sustained some cuts and bruises from banging into the pylons but he who joined the Coast Guard in 1994, had little time to worry about his discolorations.

The following afternoon, he was called into action again to save another life.

Lonnie Martin, a 70-year-old Sugarland, Texas, resident, was stuck in the bitter cold overnight after his 22-foot boat ran aground near Tiki Island, Texas. He left a local marina the morning before to go fishing for three or four hours, a day-trip that turned into a 26-hour ordeal.

A helicopter crew was sent and quickly located Martin hunkered down on a small island. Aguilar helped the fisherman into the helicopter and immediately began treating him for hypothermia.

"Oh, it was cold. I just kept saying to myself, 'if you go to sleep, you're going to die,'" says Martin.

"He was limping and really stiff," Aguilar says.

Martin was taken to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, suffering from the effects of hypothermia.

Coast Guard rescue crews, by sea and air, have battled a single enemy for over 216 years; Mother Nature. She can be a cruel and unflinching adversary, one not easily conquered. But these crews have proven that the battle can be won, the enemy can be defeated and lives can be saved.