The Association for Rescue at Sea, Inc. (AFRAS) held its annual award ceremony and reception on 23 September 2009.  The celebration took place on Capitol Hill in Washington, D. C. and was co-hosted by the Honorable Howard Coble, co-chairman, U.S. Congressional Coast Guard Caucus.

      AFRAS awarded a Gold medal, a Silver medal, and the Amver plaque for outstanding rescues made in 2008.  The Gold Medal and a cash prize was presented to Abram A. Heller, Aviation Survival Technician Second Class, US Coast Guard; the Silver Medal and a cash prize was awarded to the coxswain and crew of USCG Auxiliary vessel FACE OFF; and the Amver plaque was presented to the Captain and crew of M/V PARTHENON.

      AFRAS is grateful for its platinum level supporters of this year’s ceremony:  EADS of North America and Lockheed Martin.

GOLD MEDAL
Petty Officer Abram Heller was awarded the prestigious AFRAS Gold Medal for his impressive actions while serving as a Rescue Swimmer aboard Coast Guard helicopter CGNR 6566 on 23 March 2008. 

At 0300 on Easter morning the F/V ALASKA RANGER, a 192-foot catcher-processor with 47 persons on board, broadcast a distress call reporting that the vessel had lost its rudder and was taking on water in the Bering Sea, 125 NM west of Dutch Harbor Alaska.  When CGNR 6566 arrived on scene, the fishing vessel had already foundered and the crew witnessed multiple life rafts and scattered blinking strobe lights across a mile-long debris field.

In 15-foot seas and 30-knot winds, the pilot of CGNR 6566 skillfully descended over the dark ocean and Rescue Swimmer Heller deployed into the 34-degree water and successfully rescued three of the mariners.  Continuing his search, petty officer Heller carefully picked his way through the treacherous debris field and located two additional crewmen completely entangled in the sunken vessel’s fishing gear.  Working tenaciously beneath the icy waters, Heller disentangled the survivors from the netting and placed them in the helicopter’s rescue basket.  With the cabin now completely full and the helicopter perilously low on fuel, Heller requested a crew raft to use for himself and remaining survivors while CGNR 6566 departed into the darkness.

Petty officer Heller, now alone in the wind-swept seas, utilized all his strength, instinct and experience to assist three severely hypothermic fishermen into the life raft.  As another rescue helicopter arrived an hour later, Heller returned to the frigid waters and placed the crewmen, one at a time, into the basket for recovery while suffering from severe hypothermia himself.  Petty Officer Heller’s actions, skill and valor were instrumental in saving eight mariners from certain death in the Bering Sea.  With the aid of a second Coast Guard helicopter, a Coast Guard Cutter and a sister ship to the ALASKA RANGER, 42 of the 47 crewmembers were saved that morning.

SILVER MEDAL
      An AFRAS Silver medal was awarded to US Coast Guard Auxiliarists R. Jeffrey Brooks, Edward W. Parish, William M. Shepard, Robert O. Wells and William E. Winfrey for outstanding achievement in the performance of duty while serving aboard FACE OFF, a 25-foot center-console angler.  Following a routine training mission on 25 May, 2008 in the upper Gulf Coast of Florida’s panhandle, the Auxiliarists were patrolling when alerted to a swimmer in distress just south of Laguna Beach.

      FACE OFF was first to arrive on scene, followed by a Coast Guard utility boat, and the two began a sector search followed by a parallel track pattern.  Air resources were called in to assist in the search for the initial victim (who in fact drowned) as well as 45 other swimmers who had been swept out to sea by the strong current along the five-mile stretch of shoreline.  Many of the distressed swimmers were pulled in by police and fire rescue personnel and jet-ski rental vendors.

      After several hours of searching without success, the CG utility boat and the Auxiliary vessel began a search pattern with the Coast Guard vessel ahead of the patrol and several hundred yards further offshore.  The FACE OFF crew searched just outside of the 4 to 5 foot breaking surf, while in the background the beach was lined with the flashing lights of dozens of emergency vehicles responding to the many other calls.

      At sunset, the crew noticed a Panama City Beach Patrol deputy flashing his spotlight at them.  Shepard, at the helm, carefully approached the breaking surf, enabling the crew to spot a man and woman desperately holding on to a small float board.  Brooks helped to guide Shepard as they nosed the boat forward even closer to the sandy bar well aware that if they went too far, the surf could easily capsize the vessel.  Auxiliarist Wells moved to the bow of FACE OFF and accurately threw a line to the victims.  Shepard slowly backed the vessel from the dangerous surf line towing the exhausted swimmers, and although seas were still running 2 to 3 feet Auxiliarists Winfrey and Parish were able to pull the victims safely on board.  One of the swimmers was exhibiting signs of shock, so the Auxiliarists covered the survivors with blankets and gave them warm water.  After notifying Coast Guard Station Panama City of the rescue, the crew of FACE OFF took the victims to Lighthouse Marina in Grand Lagoon where they were eventually reunited with their families.

      The actions of the coxswain and crew aboard USCG Auxiliary vessel FACE OFF are most heartily commended and in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Coast Guard.

AMVER AWARD
AFRAS presented the Amver plaque to the captain and crew of the M/V PARTHENON, an 800-foot tanker managed by Tsakos Group of Athens, Greece, for the rescue of four sailors on 28 September 2008.

Captain Vasileiadis Lazaros, master of the Greek flagged tanker, was sailing to the Port of Setubal when his crew heard a distress call from the sailboat Sun Chaser approximately 84 miles west of Cabo Sao Vicente, Portugal.  Within two minutes of receiving the call Captain Lazaros was on the bridge directing the ship to proceed to the stricken sailboat.

Steering the 800 foot tanker towards the distress location Captain Lazaros notified Portuguese rescue authorities and ordered “all crew to standby on deck.”  Coordinating his efforts with Radio Lisboa, Captain Lazaros overheard a Portuguese rescue helicopter order the Swedish sailors into a lifeboat.  “The sailors radioed the rescue helicopter and said they could not abandon ship in the rough weather because their lifeboat had been ripped from the sailboat and drifted away,” Captain Lazaros added.

As weather conditions deteriorated (winds over 30 knots and waves over 15 feet) the rescue helicopter was unable to safely hoist the sailors and returned to base leaving the 107,000 ton dead weight tanker the only means of rescue for the sailors.

“I ordered the Sun Chaser to make fast to our port side amidships and had the crew lay down the pilot ladder,” Captain Lazaros recounted in an email to the Amver center.  Within two minutes of lowering the pilot ladder the first survivor was safely on board the Parthenon.  Within three hours of receiving the call for help the Parthenon had rescued all four Swedish sailors.  The survivors, two men and two women, were cared for aboard the Parthenon and taken to Setubal where they were met by Portuguese officials.

The Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue System (Amver), sponsored by the United States Coast Guard, is a unique, computer-based, and voluntary global ship reporting system used worldwide by search and rescue authorities to arrange for assistance to persons in distress at sea.  The Parthenon has been an Amver participant since 2003.

      The Association for Rescue at Sea (AFRAS) is a non-profit foundation with charitable status, which supports services concerned with saving lives at sea.  The Gold Medal presentation was established in 1982 and the medal is presented annually to an enlisted member of the United States Coast Guard for an act of extraordinary bravery during a rescue at sea.  AFRAS established the Silver Medal in 2000 (silver to denote the uniform markings of a CG Auxiliarist as opposed to the gold of the USCG) and it is presented when a Coast Guard Auxiliarist performs a rescue under the same criteria as that for an enlisted Coast Guard person.  The AFRAS Amver award was established in 1996 to recognize the contribution of seamen in ships at sea to the safety of their fellow mariners.  Nominations for all awards are made by the USCG's Search and Rescue Division.