On March 25, a fishing vessel and the boater onboard were reported overdue off the waters of Oahu, Hawaii. That evening, a family member of the boater reported to the Coast Guard Sector Honolulu that the boat had departed from Waianae that morning to fish and had not returned.
The Coast Guard sprung into action, sending out a broadcast to mariners, launching an aircrew and redirecting Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Gerczak.
The “EasyRiders” of the Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 37 (HSM-37) with the United States Navy helped provide search and rescue for the Coast Guard aircrew that was dispatched.
The boater was rescued the next morning and transported to receive civilian medical care.
While this rescue took place halfway across the globe, Dublin’s own Lt. Michael Dilenschneider, who played football and graduated from Dublin Scioto High School in 2010, aided in this rescue.
He says that search and rescue training is a routine, practiced aspect of the Navy.
“When we first got news of the tasking from the Coast Guard, we were actually planning for a night formation flight, doing an entirely separate mission,” he says.
The boater had been in the water for a longer period of time than most rescued survivors.
“We were already in a helicopter over the survivor (and) executing the rescue, and you could sense a sense of disbelief between all parties involved – the Coast Guard and our other aircraft that had checked back on station – that we had actually found the person,” says Dilenschneider. “It had been over 12 hours time since they had presumably been in the water. It generally doesn't work out that way.”
When the Coast Guard reached out to the Navy for help, they had to turn around a tactical formation flight they were planning to launch that night to get that aircraft ready for the search and rescue.
“Our aircrew had to immediately get outfitted with rescue gear and check their gear, and everybody has a sense of urgency to get off deck, like you would expect in a search and rescue environment,” Dilenschneider says. “But there's a sense of urgency amongst all parties involved in everything, everyone was doing their job that they're trying to do and it all seamlessly fell into place, especially when it was needed the most.”
While there was a sense of excitement to carry out the mission, there was also a major sense of relief after the boater was safely rescued.
“(As for) the rescue itself, there was a sense of disbelief when we had successfully found the survivor and had eyes on or executed the rescue,” he says. “By the time we had marked on top their position, we checked out the scene for about 15 to 20 minutes.”
Dilenschneider says that the most rewarding part of the rescue was simply being able to be a part of it.
“It was exciting to be a part of a team where everybody's executing what they're supposed to do, and the flow of the organization at the right place at the right time ended up with a successful outcome,” he says. “Most everyone's aware that most of the time, it doesn't work out this way. … I think everyone was aware of the difficult challenge that we were being tasked to do.”
Reflecting back on his time at home before joining the Navy, Dilenschneider says he started thinking about joining the military early on during his time at Scioto.
“I sort of got that (idea) early in high school and then by the middle of high school I was pretty set on doing the military,” he says. “I was attracted to being part of an organization that was more important than myself, something that you could wake up every day and realize that you're doing stuff for the betterment of other people.”
Helen Widman is an editorial assistant. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
