They radio their status to the aircrew, still flying above, and then contact the ship’s captain. They cut its parachute, pop its straps, dewater the boat’s engine. Then, spotting the beacon through a breaking crest, he makes for the crate as each successive jumper hits the waters around him, fights the seas, unstraps, and follows close behind. He swims clear and surveys his surroundings. The ten-foot swells drag him from peak to trough. Clair maneuvers his parachute, unstrapping mid-air as he chases the blinking beacon. It contains the team’s only hope of reaching the Tamar: an inflatable rubber boat and a motor. The crate was cut from the aircraft just before his own departure. He turns, searching the night for another white light, a strobing beacon attached to a canvas-wrapped crate. Clair can see it, the Tamar, its flooding deck lights radiating blurry white against the surrounding black. Nor does he deviate off course or lose his bearings. The red line yanks open his parachute, and he’s struck by 130 mph winds. Clair duck-steps up to and then over the ramp’s edge. Which is what these PJs, based out of Westhampton Beach, Long Island, are doing on this April night, 2017-nineteen hundred miles east of home. Coast Guard in particularly challenging missions. When they are not deployed overseas, these PJs are back home, on call, offering emergency support to the maritime community and the U.S. Many of these PJs have served together in Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Africa. The seven PJs aboard the aircraft tonight, members of the 103 rd Rescue Squadron, a unit of the New York Air National Guard's 106th Rescue Wing, represent one of the military’s few reserve Special Ops units. Trained to jump from planes and perform surgery aboard helicopters, they are the airmen who arrive when the Navy SEALS call 9-1-1. Their mission entails rescuing personnel caught in ambushes, injured in IED explosion, trapped behind enemy lines. Air Force Pararescue-parajumpers, PJs for short-elite Special Operations soldiers whose name few know. Air ForceĪ light by the ramp door turns red, and the airmen ready for departure. The 625-foot vessel Tamar from above before jump. The two other men-charred, skin flayed-wait now without pain medicine. Within hours of the explosion, two of the sailors died. The captain’s message was routed from Lisbon to Portsmouth, then to Boston, and on to the airmen in Long Island. The men’s injuries were severe, requiring expert attention. and Portuguese Coast Guard helicopters as well as rescue boats. They were in the middle of the Atlantic the nearest land-the Azores Islands-was over five hundred miles to the east. In his distress message, the ship’s captain wrote that the men had been burned from head to toe. Earlier that morning, there had been an explosion onboard, some unknown ignition that had set fire to four sailors working inside the hull. At the next command-“ HOOK UP!”-they clip their parachutes’ red static lines to a steel cable running over their heads.įifteen hundred feet below, their target: the Tamar, a commercial shipping vessel two thirds into its voyage from Baltimore to Gibraltar. Their faces are lit only by the lambent glow of chemlights. He turns back to his men, each strapped with over a hundred-and-fifty pounds of gear. A low blanket of clouds blots out the moon and stars and erases the distinction between the black sky and the black Atlantic Ocean beneath. It brushes past the seven airmen seated in rows, sending stray pieces of paper, fabric, and tape fluttering in the thin air. The stories we hear are moving and inspiring and we want to make their lives a little bit easier.The jumpmaster screams the command over the roaring engine, and the back hatch of the HC-130 aircraft yawns open into night. Funds raised on Wetnose Day (and at anytime!) go to the unsung heroes – those who dedicate their lives to rescuing and caring for all sorts of animals every single day. Their work is amazing and I am proud to be a small part that helps let more people know about this wonderful day. “I am over the moon to be an ambassador to Wetnose Animal Aid and Wetnose Day. She is passionate about VeggieVision TV her “internet TV station.” She regularly is interviewed as to how and why cater for vegans and advises the Mail on Line, Center Parcs and has written for Leona Lewis’s blog and Ocado. Karin is the MC for VegfesUK the biggest vegan festivals in Europe and had her own show again on Phoenix FM every Friday from 6pm to 8pm and chats about animals, veganism, positive living and plays super 80s and 90s music. She has attended the awards, interviewed our celebrity supporters and promoted Wetnose Day to the media. Karin Ridgers has supported Wetnose Day for the past 5 years.
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