US Navy Rescues 3 Fishermen Adrift for 8 Days
Navy Times reports the U.S. Navy rescued three fishermen Tuesday who were adrift on a boat in the Pacific Ocean for eight days.
The men were reported missing Feb. 12 after failing to return from a fishing trip in Micronesia. The men had food and water aboard their 19-foot skiff, but no safety equipment or radios.
The U.S. Coast Guard based in Guam searched for the men for several days before calling in a Navy team from Japan, who used a P-8A Poseidon plane equipped with advanced radar to find the boat within three hours.
The Navy said they dropped a kit to the boat containing food, water, medicine and communications equipment before a nearby police boat picked up the fishermen a few hours later.
“It was incredibly rewarding to be a part of saving lives — it’s what everyone joins the Navy to do,” said Lt. Miles Schumacher, the tactical coordinator of the Patrol Squadron Eight aircrew.
Schumacher said in a statement that the P-8A Poseidon aircraft had enabled a “massive step forward” in the ability of search and rescue teams to search large areas quickly and effectively, even in the farthest corners of the globe.
Micronesia is about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to Indonesia, and is home to about 100,000 people.
Successful rescues make my day, especially when “my” aircraft performs the save. The SAR kit is stored in the weapons bay, and is a vast improvement over the P-3 kit, which was deployed from the main cabin door.
Category: Navy, Search and Rescue
Great job Navy!
Good work to the swabbies and coasties on this! Keep making us proud.
And the anchor clankers earn their pay today.
BZ, boys and girls.
(‘Cause we all know the Marines are the Men’s Department of the Navy.)
Are you referring to The Department of the Navy, Lower Half?
(NBL, Devil Dogs)
Well, someone has to buff the Admiral’s Passageway…
Damn Squids.
— sigh —
(shakes head)
🙂
???
I made a funny…it made me smile.
Sorry; I can’t see it.
Make that the “Men’s Room” of the Navy LOL
Man, who goes anywhere today without commo>
Clark has the right answer….my boat sails pretty much exclusively in and around Long Island Sound…we have multiple radios, a couple of EPIRBs, and typically cell phones…and it’s just a 30 footer that seldom sails out of sight of the land…death can come quickly on the water, it’s always best to have more gear than you think you need.
Some years back my wife and I owned a bait, fishing tackle, gun store in Bayville. I fished much of the North Shore from Oyster Bay Harbor – going East. Fished the South Shore more times than I can remember….and never owned a boat.
I was also a LEO not far from Bayville.
As for your comment….I agree 100%.
Micronesia, I heard that Country is SO small their Olympic Swim Team has to use the kiddie pool!
IMHO going out to Sea sans any commo is begging for disaster, especially with what’s available today!
Not having the right safety equipment on board can really lead to disaster and it happens quite often. Any of you Florida residents remember those two kids who went out of the Jupiter inlet a couple of years ago and were never seen again. No EPIRBS, DSC radio, flares etc.
Sad. Just a reminder. You do NOT fuck with Poseidon.
Funny enough it was a Poseidon that found them.
Way to go, Squibbies.
I wonder what all they caught. A 19′ skiff, in the ocean? Well, hell yeah, if the fishing was good I might have gone with them. Situational awareness must have gotten away from them.
Irrespective, you just cannot carry enough fuel on a boat, that size, to hang out overnight.
Sure glad they were rescued. Hope there are some photos and more background to the story, including what became of their boat.
Before the stupidest Kennedys started drinking on boats, there was a really good ad for Boston Whalers featuring a skiff, cut in half, and still floating, powered by an outboard engine. Can’t remember what brand the outboard engine was… probably a Mercury.