The small fishing vessel, less than 20 feet in length, was eventually spotted by the P-8A Poseidon crew on the morning of Nov. 30th, over 100 nautical miles off the coast of Guam with two souls on board. The VP-5 crew worked closely with United States Coast Guard (USCG) vessels and other air assets to recover the crew. Once the Mad Foxes spotted the vessel in distress they notified the USCG’s closest surface asset to assist in the recovery of the partially submerged civilian boat.
After initially sighting the vessel in distress the P-8A crew remained on-station to monitor and assist the rescue operation from above. “It was a team effort from the crew, with everyone involved.” said Lt. Gabe Merla, who was the first to spot the vessel, “We started to think the possibility of rescue was diminishing as time went on, but we stayed alert and it paid off. We felt a great relief to see the survivors waving their yellow life jackets as we flew over them, knowing we helped save their lives.”
The Mad Foxes, stationed in Jacksonville, Florida, are currently deployed to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. Throughout the deployment, they will be conducting maritime patrol and reconnaissance and theater outreach operations within the 7th Fleet area of operations.
| Date Taken: | 12.01.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 12.04.2020 22:51 |
| Story ID: | 384287 |
| Location: | GU |
| Web Views: | 54 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, VP-5 Mad Foxes Help Rescue Small Craft Lost at Sea, by LTJG Matthew Skowronski, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
