The Coast Guard announces this year's winners of some major SAR awards, honoring the incredible acts of bravery during sea rescues and outstanding work by search and rescue professionals.
AFRAS Gold Medal Winner: AST2 James Chandler, Air Station Houston for saving 8 lives on May 28, 2024
Here's what happened: A 40-foot dive boat with 8 Texas A&M dive team members broke down 45 miles off Galveston and started sinking fast. They were dealing with 30-knot winds, 8-10 foot waves, and severe thunderstorms battering the area.
AST2 Chandler and his helicopter crew flew out into these terrible conditions. When they got there, AST2 Chandler jumped into the churning water and swam 50 yards to the sinking boat to help coordinate the rescue. Due to weight and capacity limitations, the helicopter, CG6570, had to make two trips back to shore to drop off survivors, leaving AST2 on the sinking vessel to keep everyone calm and safe. He stayed out there for 5 hours, fighting seasickness and exhaustion, until a second helicopter arrived to get the remaining people. Only after all 8 survivors were safe did AST2 Chandler finally get hoisted back up.
Chairman’s Award: Auxiliarist Jason Leck for rescuing someone in distress in Brigantine, New Jersey on June 25, 2024
Around 11:30 PM, Jason and his wife Tina were woken up by their neighbor screaming that someone was drowning. They called 911, ran to their boat dock, and got underway. Heavy cloud coverage blocked out most moonlight, but Jason immediately started a search pattern based on where he heard the frantic yelling. After several passes, he found the person in the water, threw them a life ring, and used a line to pull them about 50 yards back to the dock where emergency crews were waiting.
Geoff Pagels Award SAR Professionals of the Year for Outstanding Professionalism in the Planning and Coordination of a SAR Mission: Sector St. Petersburg Command Center Team for their work during Hurricane Milton
This team pulled off an incredible rescue during Hurricane Milton. Through a rigid communication schedule, the Command Center team were tracking a fishing vessel called "Captain Dave" when it got caught in the hurricane with 75-90 knot winds and 20-25 foot seas. When they lost contact and got distress signals, the Sector St. Petersburg Command Center immediately jumped into action.
Using advanced search planning systems and reverse drift modeling, they coordinated the deployment and search efforts for an MH-60 helicopter, C-144 aircraft, and two MH-65 Dolphin helicopters. The really amazing part? Even though the hurricane forced them to relocate their entire command center to Sector Mobile, and over half their staff had damage to their own homes, they never stopped working.
They ended up finding survivor Joseph Tessa alive in a fishing cooler 15 miles offshore – 20 hours after his boat capsized!
The Sector St. Petersburg Command Center Team members are:
- SAR Mission Coordinators: CDR Ben Stanley and LCDR Dana Grady
- Command Duty Officers: Mr. Richard Hutchinson, LT Casey Skomer, OSC Jean Latimer, and OSC Aaron Bolton
- Operations Unit: OS1 Joseph Catell, OS1 Destin Dinapolis, OS1 Brian Haley, LTJG Destiny Johnson, and OS1 Kekoa Taijeron
- Situation Unit: OS2 Chase Russell, OS2 Erin Girard, and OS1 Justin Merriam
- Communications Unit: OS3 Samantha Rajala, OS3 Omar Garcia, OS3 Landreth, OS3 Ariana Myers, and OS2 Anya Reese
Geoff Pagels SAR Professionals of the Year Award for outstanding contribution to the SAR mission readiness of Coast Guard SAR Professionals: Mr. Rodger P. Krass Jr., Sector New York for achievement in training, relationship building, and mentorship
Mr. Krass has spent over 30 years making sure Coast Guard rescue teams are ready for anything. In this past year alone, he's developed multi-day training exercises, coordinated annual flare training for dozens of watch standers, and facilitated Team Coordination Training across Sector New York. As a primary SAR Mission Coordinator, he's overseen more than 104 cases that resulted in 40 lives saved.
Using his expertise as a Communications Unit Leader (COML), he even deployed for 60 days during the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster response and led communications for the United Nations General Assembly.
Other Outstanding Nominees
Several other Coast Guard members were nominated and deserve recognition:
- AFRAS Gold Medal:
- AST1 Derrian Duryea, Air Station Cape Cod
- AST2 Michael Diglio, Air Station Clearwater
- Geoff Pagels Award SAR Professionals of the Year for Outstanding Professionalism in the Planning and Coordination of a SAR Mission:
- Mr. George Bannon, Sector Virginia
- Mr. Joshua Herman, Sector New Orleans
- CWO Michael Zapawa, Sector San Francisco
- Geoff Pagels SAR Professionals of the Year Award for outstanding contribution to the SAR mission readiness of Coast Guard SAR Professionals:
- Rescue Sub-Center San Juan Command Center
- Sector San Francisco Command Center
What's Next
All the winners will be honored at a ceremony later this year hosted by AFRAS (Association for Rescue at Sea).
Congratulations to everyone – these are some truly incredible stories of courage and professionalism!
-USCG-