Posted on 04/02/2003 10:28:23 PM PST by quietolong
Barronett man aids in pilot rescue
The Associated Press
SPOONER -- Mary Wickland named her son after a brother who drowned in a lake, and she made sure the boy became an excellent swimmer.
On Tuesday, 20-year-old Scott Daniel Wickland jumped into the waters of the Persian Gulf and rescued two pilots who had ejected from a crashed plane.
Wickland, a native of Barronett in Barron County, is a crew member on a helicopter assigned search-and-rescue duties in the war with Iraq. He was in the helicopter early Tuesday when a plane veered off the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Constellation.
“When I heard the (helicopter) pilots say, ‘Crew, rig for rescue’ this was real,” he told the Green Bay Press-Gazette in a telephone interview.
“I still had that exhilarating feeling, and I was really excited, but at the same time it was a pretty rough event for those pilots, and I was hoping they were all right.”
He was lowered into the water where he checked both pilots for injuries. He then hooked them to a hoist that lifted them into the hovering helicopter.
It was Wickland’s first actual rescue. He also operates the sonar equipment on the helicopter.
Mary Wickland, of Spooner, was proud when she heard of her son’s role in the rescue.
“I had it in my mind that my kids would be good swimmers,” she told the Pioneer Press of St. Paul, Minn.
Her brother drowned in a lake near Lindstrom, Minn., nearly 22 years ago. She started giving Scott swimming lessons when he was six months old.
Scott Wickland loved the water so much he joined the Navy while in high school.
ACCIDENT ON THE USS CONSTELLATION
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