Farmhouse Plans: Rescue Swimmer

Rescue Swimmer

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (NNS) -- Navy search-and-rescue (SAR) swimmers from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 25 on Andersen Air Force Base are a critical resource in Guam.

HSC-25 is the only helicopter asset for the Mariana Islands. It supports U.S. 7th Fleet in the Western Pacific and assists the U.S. Coast Guard by providing SAR units.

HSC-25 provides around-the-clock SAR support and averages 30 rescues and 70 medical evacuations each year. SAR swimmers can respond to a variety of situations from aircraft crashes to boats capsizing and are usually the first to arrive at the scene.

Those who want to become SAR swimmers are placed in a special division in boot camp.

"The program changed a few years ago," said Senior Chief Naval Aircrewman (NAC/AW) Jonathan Hettel, HSC-25 rescue swimmer. "Now all the rescue swimmers go to a different division in boot camp called 800 Division. Their focus is getting in shape; they do twice the amount of physical training than everyone else."

The division includes Navy SEALs, explosive ordnance disposal technicians and special warfare combatant-craft crewman.

After boot camp, they attend air crew school in Pensacola, Fla. "This school is four weeks," Hettel said. "It's basically physiology and anything flight-related, from water survival to parachute disentanglement."