NEAR DEATH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ATLANTIC: PARARESCUEMEN AWARDED MEDALS FOR HIGH-STAKES TAMAR RESCUE
By Hannah Ray Lambert | July 06, 2022
The HC-130 King flew low over the Atlantic Ocean under a ceiling of dense clouds. Open water stretched for hundreds of miles, and the sun was sinking over the horizon. In the plane’s cargo bay, a team of New York Air National Guard pararescuemen and combat rescue officers lined up at the rear of the plane as the ramp lowered. Wind roared into the cabin.
More than a thousand feet below, two crewmen clung to life aboard the Tamar, a Slovenian bulk cargo carrier. Two of their shipmates had already died after an explosion in the ship’s forward storeroom. The two survivors needed immediate medical aid for severe burns.
For Lt. Col. Sean Boughal, one of the jumpers that night, the 2017 mission was just another day on the job.
“But we’re responding when it’s somebody’s worst day,” Boughal told Coffee or Die Magazine. He remembered a mantra he’d learned from his pararescue instructor: “Someday when somebody is having their worst day, you better have your best day.”
So the PJs did what they do best — they jumped.
https://coffeeordie.com/tamar-rescue-air-national-guard/
