Rescues - People Planes Places - Brief Article

0 Comments | Naval Aviation News, May-June, 2004 | by Brandy Lewis

AT3 Wesley Hollingsworth of VQ-3, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., was on his way home on 16 January when he saw three vehicles parked alongside the North Canadian River. Witnesses reported that minutes earlier, a car had veered out of control and landed in the river. Carrying an axe, Hollingsworth dove into the water and used his feet to find the car in the cold and muddy water. He broke the passenger window and swam inside the vehicle. "That's when I felt the little boy," he said. "I pulled him out and swam to the bank with him. Then I turned around and swam back to the vehicle." Hollingsworth, above, searched the vehicle for the mother, but his body finally surrendered to exhaustion. He was barely able to hold on to a rope as the men on shore pulled him back in. The boy was taken to a local hospital for treatment. "I regret not being able to find his mother. I just didn't have the strength to do it," Hollingsworth said. The Oklahoma City Navy League and the Oklahoma City Fire Department presented him with a certificate for his act of heroism.

The Causeway Police in Louisiana notified the Coast Guard on 22 December 2003 that an unmanned boat was turning circles west of the Causeway Bridge, and reported three people were in the water. A rescue helicopter crew from CGAS New Orleans, La., and three rescue crews from CGS New Orleans arrived on scene and located two men and a dog. A boat crew recovered them and administered CPR to one unconscious victim. The two men were then taken by ambulance to East Jefferson Hospital in Metairie. The third man's body was recovered a few days later.