Typical Day
0400 Hours. Officer Saul T. Fischer is sound asleep in his bunk at the Coast Guard station when the alarm goes off. It's alerting him to prepare for an emergency rescue. Fischer is a U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer, also known as an AST, or Aviation Survival Technician. He's one of an elite team stationed on the Coast Guard base in Clearwater, Florida.
Fischer throws on his gear, grabs bags of rescue supplies, and is on his way to the helipad, where the aircraft commander briefs him on the situation.
There's a family trapped out at sea in a sixty-five foot sailboat in distress. What's worse, there's a storm brewing, threatening to overtake the boat with gale force winds. A mother, father, a teenage boy, a baby, and a dog are all clinging to life as their boat takes on water.
After the required safety checks, Fischer, the helicopter pilot, and co-pilot head off to save the family.
Once the chopper makes it to the scene, Fischer assesses the situation, which has worsened since they got the call. It's now raining and icy cold seas have gotten severely choppy. The sailboat flops around like it's made of plastic, threatening to capsize at any moment.
Fischer wonders who in their right mind would take a kid, a baby, and a dog out in the middle of this sea. He sees the family on the deck of the ship, all wearing life vests and waving frantically, and realizes the biggest challenge will be how to get the baby in the basket without it taking on water.
The vicious winds and choppy sea have the boat in a tail spin, causing the helicopter some difficulty in pinpointing the exact spot to drop Fischer.
After the pilot lowers the helicopter as much as possible, Fischer jumps into the water and swims against the current after the boat.
As the helicopter lowers the rescue basket down, Fischer has to make a quick decision on how to conduct the rescue. He decides to take the mother, who is clinging to the baby, into the water to get them into the basket. He straps the mother and infant in the basket and gives the sign for the co-pilot to hoist them up to safety.
Meanwhile the father and son are screaming and the dog has jumped into the water.
"Skippy! Please, save Skippy! He'll drown!" shouts the boy.
Fischer's instinct is to save the father and son who are on the boat. He quickly decides to scoop up the dog and put him back on the boat, telling the teenager to hold onto the dog so they can get in the rescue basket together.
It's a tough judgment call, but Fischer's life is chock full of 'em.
Meanwhile the father is panicking.
"What about me!" he shouts. "Take me, not the damned dog!"
"I'll come back for you next," Fischer tells him.
As they start pulling the boy and his dog up, the father jumps off the boat, lunging for the basket.
"Take me too!" he screams.
"You're going to break it. You're too heavy," yells Fischer, and indeed the basket sways, threatening to break. The boy screams, the dog howls, the sea roars.
Fischer has to hit the man to get him off the cage. He holds the man upright, face out of the roaring ocean as the boy and his dog are whisked up into the chopper to safety.
The basket comes down again and Fischer puts the now-unconscious man into the basket to be hoisted up.
When everyone is safely in the chopper, they throw a rope and rig for Fischer to hold onto and they pull him up as well.
Once everyone's inside, Fischer checks their vitals. The father comes to, angry and yelling, but his wife shushes him, reminding him that Fischer just saved their lives.
1200 Hours. The chopper lands and the family is released. Fischer heads back to the barracks, exhausted and starving.
A big pot of clam chowder is simmering for lunch. Fischer helps himself to two big bowls of it with some fresh sourdough bread. It's delicious. He sops up every bit of it with his bread, practically licking the bowl.
Fairly dehydrated from such intense activity, he drinks about a half-quart of water, wipes his chin, and calls his girlfriend to video chat. They've been together for over a year and a half, and Fischer is planning on asking her to marry him over the Christmas holiday. He's stored enough vacation time to take her on a proper honeymoon. She wants to go to Hawaii so they can snorkel and ride the dolphins, which makes Fischer laugh. He swims just about as well as a dolphin anyway, but if that's what she wants, that's what she'll get.
1400 Hours. After lunch and his phone call, Fischer relaxes by going into the sewing room and fixing the holes in his gear. He chuckles to himself as he imagines his Mama hearing that her son actually is the best in the unit at sewing.
1600 Hours. Fischer is called out on a search and rescue for a woman who has reportedly jumped off of a bridge and may still be alive in the water. He puts on his gear and gets in the chopper. Before they can search the river, though, the first responding land unit calls them over to report that the woman has been found and is in stable condition.
1800 Hours. Fischer goes back to the base where he eats a big dinner of steak, potatoes, and pie with the guys. Coasties need a ton of protein.
2100 Hours. Exhausted, Fischer falls fast asleep, trying to get as much rest as he can before the alarm wakes him to do it all over again.