Christmas in January

摘要

Just another duty day at Coast Guard Air Station, Barbers Point, Hawaii, and I was the duty C-130 search-and-rescue aircraft commander. I was scheduled to fly a first-pilot check flight at 1230. At 1115, I got a call to prepare to search for a missing 30-year-old man in a 12-foot kayak, northwest of Fanning Island. This sparsely inhabited island lies 150 miles from Christmas Island, Kiribati. It is about 1,100 mile south of Hawaii, or four hours flying time in our Hercules. We loaded CG1703 with the maximum 62,000-pound fuel load, which gave us about 12 hours of flight time. On takeoff, I never would have imagined the mission would be one of the most demanding search-and-rescue missions of my 25-year Coast Guard career, including more than 20 years as a pilot and crewman in the C-130.