Forging responders in the ‘Graveyard of the Pacific’

Editor’s Note: This article is based off transcripts of recent interviews conducted by three members of the Coast Guard’s Video Production Team: PA1 Pepe Hernandez, PA2 Ryan Schultz, and PA2 Erik Villa Rodriguez. 

The Coast Guard may be a global force, but every helicopter rescue ties back to Astoria, Oregon.  

Deep in the Pacific Northwest, in what’s known as “the Graveyard of the Pacific,” Coast Guard search and rescue (SAR) experts train the next generation of Coasties — and even partners at the Department of War and in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) — at the Advanced Helicopter Rescue School (AHRS).  

Located at the mouth of the Columbia River, Astoria is the ideal location to train for such high-stakes missions, says Senior Instructor CDR Adam Young. The area’s consistent 10-to-15-foot waves are some of the biggest swells in the country, according to trainees. It helps to have a cave, training cliff, and urban training grounds at an Oregon National Guard base within 10 miles.  

“You’ve got high seas, heavy surf, you’ve got cliffs all over, you’ve got high wind days, you’ve got poor weather on certain days,” fellow Instructor LCDR Danielle Benedetto adds. “Each day, you have to learn how to analyze the hazards, mitigate those risks, and work as a team to get the mission done.” 

Thirty years ago, rescue swimmers founded AHRS to provide the advanced training necessary to be successful amid dynamic rescue conditions. Rescue swimmers must complete AHRS within the first three years of completing their training at Aviation Survival Technician (AST) A-School — a grueling program with a high failure rate. They are required to attend in regular increments after their first course.  

AHRS training is also invaluable to the pilots and flight mechanics selected to attend. For example, learning about the characteristics of a wave is not just important for the rescue swimmer in the water. It is also critical knowledge for the pilot and flight mechanic; the impact a wave has on a swimmer and survivor also affects how the entire crew works together to position the helicopter for hoists and recoveries. 

The value of training at AHRS, students and instructors agree, is the controlled, supervised, and extensive practice that prepares students for any scenario from hoisting hikers stranded on cliffs to rescuing hurricane survivors at sea. The philosophy is simple: expose students to a range of challenges that “is just very difficult to provide in any other environment or at the operational unit.”  

To become instructors like Benedetto and Young, experience and elite skills aren’t enough. Instructors must also be dedicated to helping the next generation “improve not only their rescue craft but the craft of the crew,” according to Young.  

In each cadre, about eight instructors train 16 students (eight rescue swimmers, four flight mechanics, and four pilots). This ratio ensures that students get hands-on, direct instruction. Exercises are filmed so instructors and students can reflect on successes and find ways to do better. 

Ultimately, that dedication to learning makes AHRS the Coast Guard’s “laboratory for how we approach search and rescue cases,” Young explained. And it exemplifies the Service’s dedication to continually adapting and learning. For example, after a rescue swimmer tragically fell down a cliff while attempting a rescue in the 1990s, the Coast Guard refined its procedures and techniques to ensure survivors’ and swimmers’ safety when conducting cliff-side rescues.  

Cliff rescues are especially challenging, said LT Ian Logan, a pilot trainee at AHRS. When hovering near a cliff, pilots and crew members facilitate a rescue swimmer rappel from the hovering helicopter down and across the cliff while dealing with victims who are in immediate danger on high terrain and uneven footing.  

AST2 Jesse Cheely, a rescue swimmer and fellow AHRS student, offered an inside look at the art of cliff rescues. “You start by deciding a place on the cliff that you want to be inserted on.” Then you “look at the cliff and decide where you want to be put down and how that would affect the survivor on the cliff.” Once you’ve made it down to the survivor, you have to be in constant contact with the helicopter and the survivor, while staying directly underneath the helicopter to avoid swinging too far to either side. This type of precision hoist training, Young added, not only enhances cliff rescue operations, but also strengthens crew coordination and overall capability across a wide range of crisis response scenarios.  

Cave rescues are a distinct kind of challenge, Young says. “Currents and seas building within cave,” he explained, create extra risks for rescue swimmers and survivors. Plus, the winds and the turbulence can make things even more dangerous for the pilot, co-pilot, and flight mechanic in a hovering helicopter. That’s why instructors help trainees develop “the ability to assess the situation and as a crew come up with the most effective means to facilitate the rescue — and also a number of contingencies if the rescue doesn’t go as planned.” 

Whatever the environment, success comes down to consistent procedures, teamwork, and communication. “One thing the Coast Guard does really well is standardize crew practices,” Logan notes. “I can show up and fly with a pilot from another unit, and we could never have flown together, but we know we’re each going to follow the procedures.”  

As the American public saw during the 2025 Central Texas Floods, that shared understanding is crucial. On their first flight together, the crew of Coast Guard Rescue 6553 overcame dangerous flying conditions to assist more than 200 people in the aftermath of the tragedy. 

All the while, AHRS instructors are equipping the next cadre of SAR operators for the next hurricane, rescue, or disaster. As Logan explains, “what makes AHARS special is that you have 20, 30 years of experience and knowledge that’s been passed on from generation to generation.” 

-USCG-