A rescue swimmer’s responsibilities are frequently linked to the efforts required to locate and rescue individuals who have become stranded at sea. Rescue swimmers perform a variety of tasks, including jumping out of helicopters into open water because the helicopter cannot land on the water. Rescue swimmers may be required to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and other emergency procedures, as well as underwater manipulation of various items to free trapped individuals. A rescue swimmer’s responsibilities may extend to non-ocean rescues as well, such as situations involving flooding or even on dry land.
A rescue swimmer is a person who has been trained to save people at sea or in similar situations, usually as part of a military organization. Both the Navy and the Coast Guard in the United States, for example, train and maintain rescue swimmers for use in military and rescue operations at sea. Such swimmers are taught a variety of techniques for rescuing people at sea, including how to use underwater demolitions and other techniques for freeing someone trapped beneath wreckage or debris. A rescue swimmer may also be trained to conduct surveillance or intelligence operations at sea for military organizations.
Jumping into the ocean from a helicopter is one of the most important and dangerous tasks for a rescue swimmer. This is usually done when someone is unable to climb into the rescue basket lowered from a helicopter and requires additional assistance. Despite the fact that water is not a solid substance, hitting it from a high altitude can be dangerous, so jumping into water is usually done from a helicopter that is as low as possible. When a rescue swimmer must jump into the ocean during a storm, however, the crests and troughs created by waves can dangerously increase the jump distance from one moment to the next, making it even more difficult.
A rescue swimmer is usually trained to perform rescues in a variety of situations and settings. Rescue swimmers may be deployed to look for people in flooded homes or to rescue people from their own rooftops when heavy flooding occurs. Rescue swimmers may also be used to rescue people stranded in various wilderness areas, such as lost hikers or mountain climbers, who cannot be safely reached by terrestrial means, due to their training in dealing with unpredictable or treacherous terrain.