Coast Guard Rescue: Jumping Into a Seething Ocean

Two Coast Guard swimmers, Michael Odom and Mario Vittone, are dispatched to rescue the crew of a stricken sailboat. But when the helicopter’s cable malfunctions and fuel runs dangerously low, the crew have no choice but to leave… without Michael. In the open Atlantic, he must fight the overwhelming brutality of the ocean alone. Meanwhile, Mario is wracked with guilt for leaving his friend behind… while a potentially fatal scenario of his own starts to take shape… A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. Written by Nicola Rayner | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Matt Peaty | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Our sister podcast Short History Of… has a new book! Pre-order your copy of A Short History of Ancient Rome now at noiser.com/books Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 01

  Hey, listen! Power up your play with Nintendo Switch 2 and experience Link's legendary adventure, now reborn in vibrant detail on our fastest and most powerful system yet.

• 0:44Speaker 01

  And harness the power of the Ocarina with the built-in microphone.

• 0:53Speaker 01

  The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive. Game and system sold separately. Game rated everyone 10 and up.

• 1:01John Hopkins?

  It's almost 2 o'clock in the morning, on January 24, 1995.

• 1:07John Hopkins?

  A wild winter storm lashes across the Atlantic, and 300 miles off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, the ocean is in chaos.

• 1:17John Hopkins?

  The wind howls at 40 knots, the full force of the gales attacking like an invisible army. The waves tower into 20-foot walls. It is bitingly cold.

• 1:32John Hopkins?

  Even for seasoned Coast Guard rescue swimmer Michael Oden, these conditions are vicious.

• 1:39John Hopkins?

  The 30-year-old struggles to steady himself in the raging sea. His eyes stay fixed on his target a few meters away, another man being tossed about by the waves.

• 1:50John Hopkins?

  It is a sailor who has abandoned his damaged boat. Now he's flailing in the seething ocean.

• 1:58John Hopkins?

  Teeth gritted, Michael forges on. Every inch he progresses is a little victory. At last, he reaches the floundering man and guides them both to a rescue basket hanging from a helicopter which thunders above them.

• 2:15John Hopkins?

  Once the stricken sailor is safely inside the basket, Michael watches from the water as it rises towards the aircraft. The wind wreaks havoc with the ascent. The cable spins and swings violently like a pendulum as the rescued man clings on for dear life.

• 2:33John Hopkins?

  Bit by bit, the sailor is slowly pulled into the safety of the cabin.

• 2:39John Hopkins?

  Breathing heavily, body racked with cold, Michael waits below for the basket to return for him.

• 2:47John Hopkins?

  But for minutes, nothing happens.

• 2:53Speaker 03

  Remember watching him take him inside the aircraft and then there's just this long pause. And I just kept thinking to myself, what? You know, what are they waiting on? I knew we were running out of fuel and needed to leave. And it was just like this period of just in my mind going, what the heck are these guys doing? Why aren't they not coming to pick me up?

• 3:14John Hopkins?

  Unbenedict to Michael, the wild swinging in the last ascent has badly damaged the helicopter's cable. Mario Vittone, Michael's best friend, is the backup swimmer on duty tonight. From inside the chopper, he sees the disaster unfold.

• 3:31Speaker 04

  The flight mechanic tries to see if he can save the hoist. He knows that he has to cut the cable off clean and add a second hook to it. He also knows that there's not very much hoist cable left. But when he went to get the hoist cable back out of the drum, it simply wouldn't move and the hoist freezes up. And that's it. And at the time, the US Coast Guard had no other way. If the hoist went, that was it.

• 3:54John Hopkins?

  Without a functioning hoist cable, the helicopter is unable to lift anyone else from the sea.

• 4:01John Hopkins?

  But back in the water, Michael is still in the dark in every sense.

• 4:07John Hopkins?

  At last, he sees Mario appear at the doorway of the helicopter, clutching a six-man life raft. It's not a good sign.

• 4:17John Hopkins?

  The raft falls through the air and splashes down beside Michael.

• 4:22John Hopkins?

  He reaches for it, grabs the inflation cord and pulls. Just as the raft begins to take shape, the helicopter vanishes into the night.

• 4:33John Hopkins?

  More than 300 miles from shore, Michael is alone in the blackness, in the storm-ravaged sea, exhausted, dehydrated, and freezing cold.

• 4:44John Hopkins?

  The rescuer is now the one in need of rescue.

• 4:50Speaker 03

  I know what it's like to look for a person in a life raft or a person in the water. You just don't find them. It's very difficult. I knew my odds of survival were very, very low at that point.

• 5:07John Hopkins?

  Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives.

• 5:29John Hopkins?

  In this episode, we meet coastguard rescue swimmer Michael Odom and his best friend Mario Vittone. In January 1995, Michael is part of a team dispatched to rescue the crew of the Mirage, a sailboat caught in the grip of a merciless winter storm. But when the helicopter's cable malfunctions and fuel runs dangerously low, the crew have no choice but to leave without Michael. Out in the open Atlantic, he must fight the overwhelming brutality of the ocean alone.

• 6:00Speaker 03

  I still had enough mental acuity to recognize that, hey, I'm kind of entering that final stage of hypothermia. This is not good. And that's when I start thinking along the lines of, I'm probably not going to make it.

• 6:14John Hopkins?

  And while Michael is swallowed by the raging sea, his colleague Mario is racked with guilt for leaving his friend behind, while facing a potentially fatal scenario of his own.

• 6:25Speaker 04

  We lost Mike. He's in a life raft. I don't even know that we're gonna make it back. And so I'm thinking that my friend's gonna die and I'm not gonna see my daughter again.

• 6:34John Hopkins?

  I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.

• 7:10John Hopkins?

  It's eight o'clock in the evening on January the 23rd, 1995. The Mirage, a 40-foot racing sailboat, is caught in a fierce, frigid storm in the Atlantic. On their way from St. Augustine in Florida to the Virgin Islands of the Caribbean, the boat's crew have been surprised by a strong winter front. Three days in, and the tempest is only getting worse, as is the condition of their vessel. The engine has failed, the batteries can't be charged, and the food supply is running thin.

• 7:44John Hopkins?

  The situation spirals into chaos when a huge wave crashes over the boat, almost capsizing it.

• 7:53John Hopkins?

  Water sweeps through the craft. In his bunk, one crew member is thrown violently across the cabin. Another is battered overboard. Hooked on by his safety harness, he is dragged along behind the boat until he is hauled back in by the crew.

• 8:11John Hopkins?

  In a final blow, their life raft is swept away, until it's just a fleeting shape rolling into the dark. It's time to call for help.

• 8:23John Hopkins?

  Grabbing the radio, a crew member issues a mayday. Coast Guard units are alerted all along the southeastern US coast, from Virginia to Florida.

• 8:34John Hopkins?

  It is swiftly concluded that the air station at Elizabeth City in North Carolina is best placed to respond.

• 8:42John Hopkins?

  Situated between green fields on one side and the vast ocean on the other, the Elizabeth City Air Station is a sprawling mass of low-rise buildings and cavernous hangars, bustling with state-of-the-art aircraft and meticulously-trained crewmen and women.

• 9:00John Hopkins?

  As the alarm sounds, the station bursts into life. Coast Guard rescue worker Michael Odom is suddenly needed for this urgent mission. He is the duty swimmer tonight.

• 9:11John Hopkins?

  But up until a couple of hours ago, he wasn't supposed to be.

• 9:16Speaker 03

  That night, it was going to be a gentleman named Tom Holroyd. And Tom had some ankle issues earlier that day. And so he came in and kudos to him for saying, "I'm not physically fit enough. I feel like that I might be a risk to others if I stay on duty tonight." So Tom, myself, Mario, a couple other gentlemen were on that shift. Between all of us, it came down to, you know, who's going to take the duty for Tom? And me and Mario both basically flipped a coin, heads or tails, and called it.

• 9:48John Hopkins?

  The coin has spoken. Michael will be duty swimmer that evening. His friend and colleague Mario Vittone will be his backup.

• 9:57John Hopkins?

  As the alarm reverberates through the complex, the pair grab their gear and hurry to a pre-mission briefing. It's going to be a complex rescue. Michael will need to rely on all his skills tonight. Skills that trace way back to his youth in rural Texas.

• 10:18Speaker 03

  Me and my mom moved out to the country and the reason for that was because my parents went through a separation. And so I just kind of learned to survive on my own before the days of cell phones and you know, when, when things happened, you just had to learn to deal with it and work your way through it. I just became a very independent young man.

• 10:40John Hopkins?

  From a young age, Michael had a deep love for the water. He swam competitively at school and was often placed with older kids because of his natural talent.

• 10:50Speaker 03

  I was always like a water person. I loved to be in the pool. I'd spend all day there in the summertime. It's just always where I wanted to be and I was a very good swimmer.

• 10:59John Hopkins?

  He'd always planned to join the army, following the men in his family who all served in the armed forces. But the chance viewing of a movie changed his life.

• 11:10Speaker 03

  There was always a passion of mine to serve the country and I'd actually signed up for the army and at the last minute, one night, right before I got out of high school, I was watching a movie called The Poseidon Adventure about a ship that capsizes. And at the very end, they had a Coast Guard recruiting commercial and it just never dawned on me to go in the Coast Guard. So I called the number and away I went to the Coast Guard as soon as I got out of high school and I've been serving ever since.

• 11:39John Hopkins?

  When Michael joined the Coast Guard, the job of rescue swimmer didn't exist. So he became a machinery technician. He worked in ship's engine rooms and served on teams that carried out inspections at sea. But in 1983, a tragedy changed everything. After the SS Marine Electric sank during a storm in the North Atlantic, 31 of the 34 crew members lost their lives due to hypothermia. In the aftermath, the Coast Guard created the Rescue Swimmer Program so that trained personnel could enter the water to save lives. In 1988, Michael signed up.

• 12:22Speaker 03

  You spent sixteen weeks at North Carolina. They did a lot of rigorous physical training. They basically prepared you to go to the Navy school. And it's very intense, lots of physical fitness, lots of time in the pool, lots of simulations, and very much a boot camp style atmosphere. They're constantly screaming in your face. They do everything they can to create a situation of intense pressure and intense anxiety to see how you're going to react under those conditions, the best that they can simulate them in that environment. And I have to tell you, they were very good at it.

• 12:59John Hopkins?

  By 1995, Michael was a qualified rescue swimmer and working at the air station in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, alongside Mario Vittone, who'd become his closest friend.

• 13:10Speaker 03

  Between all of the members of the shop, we were all very tight. But me and Mario were at a different level. If we were there at work and when we were off, we were always doing something together every day. We had a small business on the side where we were building stuff for kids, like slides and swing sets and stuff like that. We were extremely tight. At the night of the Mirage, I would say, I would definitely characterize Mario as my absolute best friend in life that I'd ever had.

• 13:37John Hopkins?

  For Mario, the feeling is very much mutual.

• 13:40Speaker 04

  If you don't like Mike, it's you. He's a sort of a litmus test person where you can, if someone has a problem or doesn't like Mike, then it's an indication of a flaw in the other person, because it can't be Mike. He's just the best guy. He's just the friendliest, nicest, most just above board, one of those, you know, give you the shirt off his back kind of person.

• 14:00John Hopkins?

  Michael and Mario make a great team.

• 14:04John Hopkins?

  And now, on January the 23rd, on this bitter winter's night, their bond is about to be tested like never before, as they set off to rescue the desperate crew of the Mirage.

• 14:22Speaker 05

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• 14:53Speaker 01

  Hey, listen! Power up your play with Nintendo Switch 2 and experience Link's legendary adventure, now reborn in vibrant detail on our fastest and most powerful system yet.

• 15:06Speaker 01

  And harness the power of the Ocarina with the built-in microphone.

• 15:15Speaker 01

  The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. A Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive. Game and system sold separately. Game rated everyone 10 and up.

• 15:24John Hopkins?

  Just after 1 a.m., a Jayhawk helicopter, carrying Michael and Mario, reaches the mirage. The journey has taken around five hours, including a fuel stop in Wilmington. The helicopter only has enough gas for about 50 minutes out here. More than 300 miles from the coast, the clock is ticking on this operation from the start.

• 15:48John Hopkins?

  A C-130 search and rescue plane is already on the scene. Unable to hover, it won't carry out the rescue, but it will provide support throughout the operation. From the helicopter cabin, Michael squints through the black and the spray. Searchlights prowl across the gargantuan waves, now and then revealing the fuzzy shape of the stricken boat struggling in the water. He double-checks his gear and prepares to be lowered into the turbulent ocean. They can't land the helicopter's basket on the sailboat because space on deck is too tight. The plan is for the ship's crew to jump into the water one at a time. From there, Michael can guide and lift them into the rescue basket.

• 16:34John Hopkins?

  He's ready now. Sitting in the crew door of the hovering chopper, his flippers silhouetted against the dark.

• 16:43John Hopkins?

  As he waits for the "go, go, go", Michael looks down at the scene beneath him.

• 16:48Speaker 03

  We were thinking, from what we briefed, that we were probably coming up on a sailboat that was going to be partially submerged because they were claiming they were taking on water, that they had rolled over. It just didn't look as bad as I thought. Now, the weather, on the other hand, I was like, wow, this is pretty intense. Watching them slam up and down in the waves, I could certainly understand how they would be fearful of being in the situation they're in. We call them nor'easters. Today, those storms get names like hurricanes because they're almost at the same level as hurricane. It's a winter storm comes up, it's a front that comes up the eastern seaboard. Arctic air clashes with it and it creates a very violent, severe storm.

• 17:29John Hopkins?

  Michael is itching to get going, to get down into the water and initiate the rescue. But he still waits, perched at the doorway of the helicopter. What's the holdup?

• 17:40Speaker 03

  There's conversation going on in the cockpit that I can't hear because I'm off the ICS, the Internal Communication System, because I'm readying to go in the water. So I take my helmet off, I'm sitting there in the door, and I can tell there's conversation going on. I'm like, why are we not moving forward?

• 17:58John Hopkins?

  Turns out, there has been an unexpected call from the boat. The captain of the Mirage has refused to jump overboard, despite the rest of the crew being assembled on deck, preparing to leap.

• 18:10Speaker 03

  Mario was giving me the cutthroat signal, you know, stand down. And some of that made sense to me because, like I said, I was looking at him and this doesn't look like it's that dire of a situation. And so I thought maybe things had stabilized and we were just backing off and that was it. It was going to be, you know, just another rescue that resulted in our assistance not being needed.

• 18:33John Hopkins?

  But then, something happens that changes the operation once again. One of the crew members, Mark Cole, leaps into the water.

• 18:43Speaker 03

  But at some point, Mr. Cole just decided, I'm out of here, and jumped overboard. Like a huge leap of faith on his part. And at that point, we have no choice. You know, these guys are jumping overboard, we got to get them out of the water.

• 19:05John Hopkins?

  There's no time to lose. The chopper's fuel is being drained, and with bodies in the water, Michael must descend into the maelstrom. It's the role of Mark Buffetti, the team's flight mechanic, to operate the helicopter's hoist cable. Gradually, he lowers Michael into the water. Mario keeps a close eye on proceedings as his buddy approaches the surface.

• 19:31Speaker 04

  If all things were going equal, my job would be to sit there and take care of the victims as they came in the door. Mike wouldn't need my help on the rescue, and the flight mechanic wouldn't need my help with the hoisting. So I didn't have any responsibility except for to sort of stay out of the way and support.

• 19:46John Hopkins?

  With Mario and Mark assisting from above, Michael lands in the seething Atlantic. The scale and danger of his task is immediately apparent.

• 19:56Speaker 03

  It's a huge swell. I think they called it at about forty, forty-foot swells. And they had some breakers going over the top of the waves there with the way the wind was blowing. So it's kind of like a washing machine-type situation.

• 20:13John Hopkins?

  The water is shockingly cold, made worse by the wind and the air temperature, which has fallen dramatically. Conditions are even more savage in the sea than they appeared from above.

• 20:26John Hopkins?

  Scanning around in the frenzy, Michael is unable to spot his target, Mark Cole, the crew member who was jumped off the mirage. The boat itself has now drifted away in the gales.

• 20:38John Hopkins?

  Michael's team offer some help.

• 20:40Speaker 03

  One of the flight mechanic's job is to point in the direction of where the survivor is, knowing that, you know, we're going to lose sight of him once we're in the water. And so I'm looking back at Mark, and he's doing his job, he's pointing. I can see where the spotlight is. And I'm swimming, swimming, swimming, and it just seems like I'm not going anywhere.

• 20:58John Hopkins?

  Michael swims with all his might, but he still can't see Mark Cole.

• 21:03John Hopkins?

  Eventually, as the wind throws stinging saltwater into his face, he's able to make some progress, moving towards the area where the helicopter's spotlight is guiding him.

• 21:13Speaker 03

  Eventually, I see Mr. Cole kind of in the same wave trough. And I actually remember a breaker kind of surfing me down to where he was in the trough. And that was very unexpected to me, that it would be so violent.

• 21:34John Hopkins?

  Finally, reaching Mark, Michael puts him in a rescue hold known as a cross-chest carry, essentially dragging the sailor from behind as he lies back. Michael starts to swim towards the helicopter's basket.

• 21:49John Hopkins?

  But the ferocity of the wind means the basket constantly moves away from him, always just out of reach. The crew reels it in and tries to redeploy it, hoping it'll land closer.

• 22:01Speaker 03

  I'm swimming as hard as I can to get to the basket. And again, it just feels like I'm fighting a losing battle and I'm wondering why it's so far away. But they're picking it up, dropping it, trying to get it as close to me. They're kind of all around me, but not hitting the mark right in front of me. I just remember thinking, man, this is really taking a long time, knowing that we don't have that much time, and that we have other gentlemen to rescue. And I think that first evolution did take about 20 minutes. So they dropped the basket. They finally get it. I get my free arm on it. I'm holding Mr. Cole with the other arm. I swing him into the basket. I do remember very clearly, it just seemed like he didn't understand getting in the basket.

• 22:41John Hopkins?

  In his panic and desperation to escape the ocean, Mark struggles to understand his instructions. Unsteadily, he tries to stand in the basket, wobbling the attached cable and coming perilously close to tumbling back into the waves.

• 22:56Speaker 03

  And I kept trying to pull him down and tell him, "Sit, you know, sit down in the basket." It was almost like he was trying to crawl up the cable a little bit or something. He was hanging on to the top of the basket with his head right next to the hook. And it was scaring me because I remember thinking, "Hey, if that cable goes too slack, and somehow it's not a hard thing to happen to have that cable wrap around him, it's going to kill this guy." And I was yelling at him, "Sit down, sit down, sit down." And finally, the basket cable goes tight and pulls him out of the water and he's gone.

• 23:37Speaker 05

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• 24:07Speaker 00

  Hey, listen!

• 24:08Speaker 01

  Power up your play with Nintendo Switch 2 and experience Link's legendary adventure, now reborn in vibrant detail on our fastest and most powerful system yet. And harness the power of the Ocarina with the built-in microphone. Hmm hmm hmm, hmm hmm hmm.

• 24:29Speaker 01

  The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive. Game and system sold separately. Game rated everyone 10 and up.

• 24:41John Hopkins?

  Completing this first rescue and hoist, or "evolution" in Coast Guard terms, has taken at least 20 minutes. Now, with only around 30 minutes of fuel remaining and the rest of the crew still to rescue, time is firmly against the team.

• 24:59John Hopkins?

  Michael is hoisted back into the helicopter so they can reposition for his next jump closer to the mirage. The sailboat has been pushed nearly a mile away by the wind. Once in position, the process starts again. The next man jumps from the vessel into the ocean. Instantly, Michael is lowered back into the water. He swims to the terrified crewman and wrestles him into the basket. The sailor struggles to squeeze his bulky, six-foot-two frame inside. After some effort, he is in place. But just as the helicopter begins to reel this second man in, the ocean rears its head.

• 25:38Speaker 03

  I remember on the second evolution, we had the big wave that kind of took me up to the level of the aircraft. I remember almost looking directly into Mark's eyes and thinking to myself, this is not good. It was like a rogue wave came across us, and I'd never seen an aircraft that close to the surface.

• 25:57John Hopkins?

  Because of the height of the waves, the aircraft ascends to a higher altitude for the third evolution. But exhaustion is beginning to catch up with Michael. Mario observes his friend closely as he returns from the water.

• 26:09Speaker 04

  Back in the second time, we got the victim, and then he comes back in, and I saw him immediately grab the neck seal of his dry suit and pull it open. And you do that because you're trying to release heat. And I could tell that he was getting hot and fatigued. So I remember leaning over and, "Do you want me to go?" And he said, "One more, then you'll go."

• 26:28Speaker 03

  I was pretty exhausted after two. You know, the hindsight of that is I probably should have said yes and backed off, but I was just like, "Oh, let me do one more and then be ready. You know, you can have it after that." I just thought I had one more in me.

• 26:43Speaker 04

  And then out the door he went for the third guy.

• 26:48John Hopkins?

  Michael's third entrance into the water is the toughest. As he is lowered from the helicopter, a towering wave rushes up to meet him. He slams into the sea, gasping for air and sucking in a mouthful of water. The salt burns his throat and lungs as he coughs and vomits, struggling to orient himself in the waves. He fights through the swirling sea towards his third survivor, Dave Denman. So far, they've been out here for 40 minutes. The helicopter has just 10 minutes of fuel left.

• 27:22John Hopkins?

  Michael reaches the sailor and grabs hold of him, shouting over the roar of the wind that they need to head for the rescue basket. With one arm wrapped around the man, Michael powers them along in a side stroke. But the salt water he swallowed earlier still churns in his stomach. He retches and vomits again as they push forward towards the basket.

• 27:45Speaker 03

  I'm swimming and vomiting at the same time. And I remember him at one point even looking at me going, are you all right? And I'm like, hey, I got it. No worries. We're gonna get there. I get him there, get him in the basket. He did exactly what he was instructed to do. Up he goes.

• 28:02John Hopkins?

  But this time, with the chopper hovering higher to avoid the monster waves, the swing of the cable is even more violent.

• 28:10Speaker 04

  It's just a huge pendulum. And I had to start laying on the floor to grab the cable to help Mark Befetti, the flight mechanic, keep the cable off the helicopter fuselage. It kept banging into the fuselage. At the time, there was this sort of aluminum knife edge really on the door edge. And it was, the steel cable was digging into that aluminum and creating these little grooves. Was that much swinging going on?

• 28:37John Hopkins?

  As the basket rises toward the aircraft, it swings in wide circles, crashes into the fuel tank, scrapes along the cabin door frame, flies out, and begins the arc again.

• 28:49John Hopkins?

  The cable is coming under immense strain, squeaking and twisting. With the latest victim still suspended in the basket,

• 28:57John Hopkins?

  everything is balanced on a knife edge.

• 29:01John Hopkins?

  The team has to make a split-second decision about whether to keep bringing the basket up or to lower it back down.

• 29:08Speaker 04

  It's been a decision I've questioned every time I think about it since. Should we have gone down instead of up? But if the hoisted cable would have broken, the victim in the basket might have landed directly on Mike, and he might not have survived the fall. And so it was hoisting it up to save that victim felt like the right choice at the time. And we'll never know if we'd had a better outcome or not going the other way.

• 29:32John Hopkins?

  With no idea what's going on in the cabin, Michael waits in the water. He cannot stay down here much longer. In the darkness, he tries to make out what's happening above.

• 29:44Speaker 03

  And I could see them looking at the hoist. So there was the beginning clues that something's not right. Something's going on in the aircraft that I don't know about.

• 29:55John Hopkins?

  From the waves, Michael watches as a new object is dropped down from the helicopter. It's a bright orange Datam Marker Boy, a floating radio transmitter designed to track movement in the water. Hovering above him, the Jayhawk circles and flashes its landing lights, a signal they've lost sight of the swimmer. Things are going from bad to worse.

• 30:21Speaker 03

  I just feel like, well, this is odd because I can literally see the pilots looking at me. And they're giving me that signal. And that starts a process of, you know, we have a strobe light. We have a piece of Velcro on her head. You turn on the strobe light, you put it on your head, it flashes. You do everything to make yourself as visible to them as possible. And we have a flare in our harness. It's a Mark 13 night flare. You pop that, it's extremely bright. They were not expecting me to do that. And the co-pilot at the time was on night vision goggles. And it literally blinded him when I popped that.

• 30:53John Hopkins?

  At this stage, it's protocol for the swimmer to make contact with the helicopter team on the radio.

• 30:58Speaker 03

  And that's what they were trying to get me to do so they could explain to me what was going on. But in my mind, it's like, there is no way they don't see me. I'm not a lost swimmer, so I just didn't come up on the radio.

• 31:10John Hopkins?

  On top of everything else, the helicopter is now perilously close to its so-called bingo fuel. This is the minimum amount required for a safe return to base. With the cable and basket malfunctioning and no time to lose, it's grimly obvious what must be done.

• 31:31Speaker 03

  They have no choice. They gotta get out of there. And I see Mario holding the six-man raft. We have two rafts. We have a little single-man raft, what we call the taco raft. And we have the six-man raft, it's a much larger raft. So, you know, they were willing to sacrifice that raft with a 300-mile flight back to shoreside.

• 31:54John Hopkins?

  The raft lands next to Michael with a splash, and he pulls the cord to inflate it.

• 32:02John Hopkins?

  Inside the cabin, Mario has been struggling with a decision, struggling with leaving his best friend behind.

• 32:09Speaker 03

  The idea of getting in the water with them, I was thinking I wanted to go. And the pilot, Jay Baldow, was like, there's no way he was gonna fly back without two of his crew. He was already torn apart himself, I'm sure, from having to leave Mike behind. So the idea of them letting me get in the water was just not gonna happen. Plus, since you couldn't hoist me down, it would have to be a free fall, so it simply didn't happen. And we turned around and flew away. And it was the hardest moment of my entire career, for sure.

• 32:38John Hopkins?

  Down in the ocean, Michael hauls his weakened limbs over the side of the life raft and slaps down inside.

• 32:47John Hopkins?

  By the time he's done this, the helicopter has turned and is disappearing into the darkness.

• 32:55Speaker 03

  I mean, it went from dropping to the raft, inflating it, to getting in it, to total silence. Nothing but me in the ocean, 300 miles offshore, breaking waves, by myself, thinking, wow, what's going on? You know, there was a couple of things going in my mind. I was thinking, well, maybe they're quickly going to go pick up a couple of the other gentlemen because we're out of fuel and they're gonna come back and get me. Or maybe something happened on the Mirage and they just needed to leave me and use Mario to address a different situation. I didn't realize at that point that they were gone.

• 33:35Speaker 05

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• 34:05Speaker 06

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• 34:39John Hopkins?

  With screeching gales and exploding waves around him, Michael tries to retain his composure. Any information he can glean at this stage is key. He reaches for his radio to make contact with his team.

• 34:55Speaker 03

  I think the words I used with 19 talk to me. It was 6019 was the tail number of the aircraft. And I'm just saying, 19, talk to me, 19, talk to me. What's going on, 19? And at the same time, they're trying to talk to me, so I'm still dead silent because we're talking over each other.

• 35:11John Hopkins?

  As the crew tries to radio him at the same time, they're blocking each other's transmissions.

• 35:18John Hopkins?

  But when Michael finally gets through to the pilot, he is brought up to speed, and the reality of what's happening hits him in the gut.

• 35:29Speaker 03

  And that's when it really sinks into me. Wow, there's nobody on the East Coast that has the capabilities to come that far offshore and rescue me. I just remember it sinking in that, you know, at this point, I am truly by myself. And this is it. I know what it's like to look for a person in a life raft or a person in the water. You just don't find them. It's very difficult. I knew my odds of survival were very, very low at that point.

• 36:00John Hopkins?

  Back in the Jayhawk, the mood is similarly morose. The dark questions hang heavy in the air. Have they condemned one of their own to his grave? What about the remaining men from the mirage? And have they waited too long to turn back? Do they even have enough fuel to make it to land? It's gonna be touch and go.

• 36:25Speaker 04

  I'm thinking that my friend's gonna die and I'm not gonna see my daughter again. That was what was in my head for most of the flight. And one of the victims reached over and grabbed my leg and I'm in tears. And he thought we were still hovering over the boat. And he said, "When are you gonna get my friend?" And I grabbed him by the shoulder and I showed him the cable. I said, "We lost Mike. He's in a life raft. I don't even know that we're gonna make it back."

• 36:50John Hopkins?

  With the tank empty and fumes powering the propellers, the helicopter finally stutters back to land and touches down at the base in Wilmington.

• 37:00John Hopkins?

  Somehow, they've made it.

• 37:03John Hopkins?

  It's one tragedy averted, but that's scant consolation. As another chopper prepares to head out into the Atlantic, all Mario can do is wait and hope that somehow, against the odds, Michael will make it home.

• 37:18Speaker 04

  I was pacing the airport, not doing well. We just couldn't do a thing. We had a helicopter that didn't work. And so we were useless.

• 37:27John Hopkins?

  Hundreds of miles away, drifting in the vast Atlantic, Michael is at the mercy of the storm. The life raft is barely holding together. Time and again, he is tossed overboard.

• 37:42John Hopkins?

  He manages to crawl back onto the raft,

• 37:46John Hopkins?

  but the sea is wearing him down.

• 37:50John Hopkins?

  Aside from a few stars occasionally peeking through the black clouds, the only other light comes from the C-130 plane that is circling above. It's the aircraft that was dispatched earlier to help with surveillance during the rescue. With slightly larger fuel reserves than the helicopter, it remains in the skies over Michael. While it does not have the capabilities to swoop down and rescue him, perhaps making contact will offer him something, anything, in this desperate situation.

• 38:24John Hopkins?

  He radios to the plane.

• 38:28Speaker 03

  Pretty quickly, I established communication with C-130 that was overhead. I remember them telling me that the pilot of that aircraft, they were also running low on fuel and told that they needed to return to base. And it was told to me later that the pilot was like, "Nope, we're not leaving. We're shutting down engines. They have four engines." And he's like, "I'm gonna feather two engines, shut them down, conserve fuel. I'm gonna do whatever's necessary to stay over Mike and, you know, keep eyes on him so we don't lose him." And that was a huge thing to do.

• 39:01John Hopkins?

  The pilot tells Michael to fight on, that he can make it. But the conditions on his life raft are horrendous. The constant rolling up and down through the giant swells is causing seasickness like he's never felt before.

• 39:17Speaker 03

  The raft they dropped me has a canopy cover that goes over it. And something about putting that canopy up amplified that feeling of, you know, being in a raft that's being tossed all over the place. And it just made me even sicker. I was violently vomiting at this point. And I took the canopy back down. And that was a mistake. I should have left it up, would have kept me in the raft. Because at that point, the waves are breaking over me, throwing me out of the raft, constantly having to swim back, pull myself back into the raft. I'm acutely aware of the stages of hypothermia. We train it constantly. One of the stages of hypothermia is you go through a violent shivering stage where you're

• 40:00Speaker 03

  shivering and it's your body trying to make heat. And then when you stop shivering is when you're kinda in the last stages of hypothermia where your blood is pulling into the core of your body, organs are gonna start shutting down.

• 40:17John Hopkins?

  Michael stops shivering. He is now entering that last, critical phase of hypothermia. His vision begins to go. Using the raft's long lifeline, he starts to lash himself to the inflatable, in the dim hope that they can still find him, even if he falls out of consciousness. As the blackness encroaches, he lies back.

• 40:42Speaker 03

  When you're a young man like that, you have that sense of invincibility. And for probably the first time in my life, I was like, okay, I'm not invincible. And this is happening. I was actually having thoughts, because at the time, I was a single man, I had no kids, no wife, no nothing. I remember thinking, you know, Mario's married, Tom's married, had kids. And it's a weird thought to have, but I thought, you know, you know, if anybody's in this situation, it's probably good that I'm here.

• 41:09John Hopkins?

  The last transmission they hear in the C-130 above, before Michael slips out of consciousness, are the words, "I'm cold. I'm cold. I'm cold."

• 41:33John Hopkins?

  Nearly five hours later, at 6:13 a.m., a second rescue helicopter finally arrives on the scene.

• 41:43John Hopkins?

  Nobody has heard a word from Michael over comms in that time. A relief plane, which has by now replaced the C-130, helps to guide in the chopper with its lights, while a naval merchant vessel also on the scene acts as a wind and sea brake.

• 42:00John Hopkins?

  It is a monumental operation, coordinated from the sea and sky.

• 42:05John Hopkins?

  Rescue swimmer Jim Peterson, a friend of Michael's, is lowered to the raft.

• 42:11John Hopkins?

  Straddling Michael, he shouts at his friend and rubs his chest vigorously. Inserting his hand on the Michael's hood, Jim checks the carotid pulse.

• 42:22John Hopkins?

  Very weakly. Michael moves. He's alive.

• 42:28John Hopkins?

  Jim acts fast, clipping Michael's harness to his own, and the two begin their ascent together. But as they're lifted, the raft's webbing tangles around Jim's arm, creating a dangerous load on the hoist.

• 42:43John Hopkins?

  After several sharp tugs, Jim frees them, and they are hauled up to the hovering helicopter.

• 42:49John Hopkins?

  On board, Michael's body temperature is dangerously low, 4 degrees Celsius below normal. His survival suit is cut away, and he is wrapped in blankets and given oxygen while the cabin is heated to its maximum temperature. The plan is for Michael to be taken to the Tykondoroga, a well-equipped military cruiser 150 miles away. The medical facilities onboard could be enough to save him. During the flight, he recovers consciousness.

• 43:19Speaker 03

  My first clear memory was being in the litter, strapped in it, having people all around me kind of coming to and realizing, wow, you know, I'm all right, I'm here. But also, they had cut all my suit off, clothes off, I was wrapped in a blanket, but I didn't have any clothes. And so I was like, wow, all these people around, I'm naked. This is kind of embarrassing. I hope they don't take this blanket off of me.

• 43:47John Hopkins?

  Michael's body temperature climbs somewhat during the 70-minute flight to the cruiser. When they arrive on the Tykondoroga, treatment resumes immediately. But Michael's dehydration from vomiting, combined with hypothermia, makes it difficult for the team to locate a usable vein for IV fluids.

• 44:07Speaker 03

  I remember this older gentleman, a Navy corpsman, you can tell he's just, you know, one of those gruff type of guys coming in with an IV bag, telling the younger guy, "Get out of the way, I got this." And, you know, he started the IV in the back of my hand instead of in my arm. And he had taken the IV and warmed it up in a microwave for like one minute. I just remember that warmth just going through my veins when he hit that vein and that IV started flowing, thinking, oh my God. It's like the most euphoric feeling. That's when real clarity came, that I'm here, I'm alive, I made it.

• 44:49John Hopkins?

  Michael is treated aboard the ship, where he begins to regain his strength and remains under observation for 24 hours.

• 44:58John Hopkins?

  In the meantime, the helicopter that picked him up has resumed the rescue at the Mirage and secured a fourth member of the crew. But the captain, once again, refuses to abandon the vessel. The search and rescue team are forced to leave him.

• 45:17John Hopkins?

  Unbelievably, the boat manages to survive the Tempest, and the captain continues on solo. Somehow, he and the Mirage limp their way to their destination in the Virgin Islands 17 days later.

• 45:33John Hopkins?

  As for Michael, when he's eventually returned home, he's given a hero's welcome. Not that he revels in it for long. Despite having just been on the cusp of death, he is back at work within a matter of days.

• 45:46Speaker 03

  You fall off the horse, get right back on it, get back to work. Don't let it slow you down. That's kind of was my mentality. Within 30 minutes, SAW alarm was going off, and I was headed back out to the helicopter to look for a lost surfer off of Virginia Beach.

• 46:02John Hopkins?

  The surfer is swiftly located and rescued, all in a day's work.

• 46:09John Hopkins?

  On May 4, 1995, Michael receives the distinguished Flying Cross before Congress for his heroic actions during the rescue of the Mirage.

• 46:18Speaker 03

  I was proud to receive it, certainly, and I was grateful to receive it. But at the same time, I had a feeling of, you know, am I really worthy of this? Because I was just doing what all of us would have done. It was our job.

• 46:32John Hopkins?

  Michael and Mario's friendship continues to this day.

• 46:36John Hopkins?

  While Mario is in awe of his friend's own inner will to survive, Michael says he believes the main reason he's still here is thanks to others.

• 46:45Speaker 04

  Mike survived because the alternative was pretty grim. He said there was no choice. The absence of options clears the mind wonderfully. He didn't have anything else to do but survive. He goes, "I survived because I didn't stick my head over the side and take a breath. You know, I survived because I didn't jump out and give up." That's what allowed him to survive. He didn't quit. He just had to sit there and wait and hope. And it worked out.

• 47:08Speaker 03

  Obviously, you know, I had a will to live, but it was all of the actions that were taking place behind the scenes that I didn't know were happening. Getting the other aircraft up, I mean, they were throwing everything they had. They had the Navy involved. I wholly attribute me being here today to their efforts. Right down to the C-130 crew just talking to me on the radio and giving me the confidence that, hey, you're going to get through this. That voice on the other end of that radio was very important to me. Just hearing somebody and knowing I wasn't alone gave me just a little bit more fight to hang in there and try to stick with it and survive.

• 47:57John Hopkins?

  Next time on Real Survival Stories, we meet Ryan Montoya. A young man seeking spiritual fulfillment in the majesty of the great outdoors, Ryan is driven to immersing himself in the most punishing conditions.

• 48:11John Hopkins?

  And in 2017, he embraces a particularly ambitious challenge, ascending a formidable peak in the Rocky Mountains all by himself. But near the summit, one wrong move sees him slip and tumble down the mountain from a mind-boggling 14,000 feet. From this dizzying height, how far will he fall before he grinds to a halt? And how can he possibly survive such a massive drop?

• 48:38John Hopkins?

  That's next time on Real Survival Stories.

• 48:43John Hopkins?

  Listen to Ryan's story right now without waiting and without ads by subscribing to Noiser Plus.

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• 49:20Speaker 01

  Hey, listen! Power up your play with Nintendo Switch 2 and experience Link's legendary adventure, now reborn in vibrant detail on our fastest and most powerful system yet.

• 49:33Speaker 01

  And harness the power of the Ocarina with the built-in microphone.

• 49:42Speaker 01

  The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. A Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive. Game and system sold separately. Game rated Everyone 10 and up.