NAWILIWILI – One could call it “cross training.” Periodically, U.S. Coast Guard helicopter search-and-rescue crews, equipped with rescue swimmers and gear necessary to make open-ocean and boat and ship rescues of people in distress, go to the Neighbor Island stations
NAWILIWILI – One could call it “cross training.”
Periodically, U.S. Coast Guard helicopter search-and-rescue crews, equipped with rescue swimmers and gear necessary to make open-ocean and boat and ship rescues of people in distress, go to the Neighbor Island stations to train members of the “small-boat crews.”
Members of the small-boat crews need to know how to receive rescue baskets, the capabilities of rescue helicopters and crews, and other facets of open-ocean rescues, and the periodic training helps achieve those goals, said Chief Petty Officer Marsha Delaney, a Coast Guard spokesperson on O‘ahu.
The small-boat crews would include those assigned to Coast Guard Station Nawiliwili and U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kittiwake, both at Nawiliwili Small Boat Harbor, she said.
So it was earlier this month that a HH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew, from Barbers Point, came to Kaua‘i to work with the Nawiliwili Coast Guard personnel, choosing a calm spot along the Hule‘ia River near the Nawiliwili Small Boat Harbor to conduct open-water rescue training for the local crew, she said.
Most likely, it was a member of the Coast Guard stationed at Nawiliwili who portrayed a “victim” in the water plucked to safety by the Barbers crew, she said.
