September 18, 2013
Coast Guard Lt. Brian Ward (third from the right) acted as aircraft commander for the mission to rescue two fishermen (first and second from the right) after their boat mysteriously began sinking.
Stories this photo appears in:
Lee High Graduate Helps Make Coast Guard Rescue
Former Springfield resident Lt. Brian Ward piloted a helicopter as part of a “textbook” response.
On Friday afternoon, Sept. 6, a garbled mayday call from a commercial fishing vessel roughly 40 miles off Cape Mendocino, Calif., meant Coast Guard Lt. Brian Ward would get a rare chance at a major rescue. The excitement for his four-man helicopter team was palpable. These cases only come along about once a month. But with extensive training on his side, Ward, a 2000 Robert E. Lee High School graduate, kept a cool head and executed a textbook, successful rescue mission as aircraft commander.
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