No matter what the service, military rescue swimmers are a pretty remarkable bunch. In addition to being skilled at their normal rating duties, they’re able — and willing — to be lowered into some pretty hair-raising situations that most normal folks would regard as out of the realm of possibility.
The Atlantic waters looked to be fairly calm when the dock landing ship Gunston Hall conducted a man-overboard drill last week, as you can see:
Engineman 3rd Class Michael E. Kenyon, a Gunston Hall search and rescue swimmer, gets lowered into the water Dec. 15 for a shipboard recovery man-overboard drill. Gunston Hall is underway participating in Composite Training Unit Exercise, a major requirement for the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group certification for deployment. // U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Lauren G. Randall
That’s a long way down, though. In addition, the water temperature was on the cool side. According to the National Oceanographic Data Center, the average water temp off the Virginia coast this time of year is in the mid-to-high 40s. Not so extreme on this day — it was 65 degrees, according to Lt. Megan Shutka, spokeswoman for Amphibious Squadron 8.
Still, not exactly shower-warm! Put yourself in Kenyon’s place in this pic:
Kenyon rescues 'Oscar', the ship's man-overboard prop. // U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Lauren G. Randall
No word on what Oscar thought of the conditions …
