Coast Guard opens up Astoria rescue training program

By KATU.com Staff Published: Jan 30, 2012 at 3:19 PM PDT Last Updated: Jan 30, 2012 at 3:36 PM PDT
Coast Guard opens up Astoria rescue training program »Play Video
Class particpants pose for a group photo during a training session. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard.

ASTORIA, Ore. – All those helicopter rescues of stuck swimmers, stranded fishermen and boaters struggling in raging surf that the U.S. Coast Guard performs each year take practice.

Now, the Coast Guard is opening up their helicopter rescue drills to non-service members who work as first responders in other services in the U.S and Canada.

The video footage people see on the news of yet another stranded person being hoisted to safety and into a hovering helicopter is just the end result of numerous practice drills members of the service participate in all year, many near the Coast Guard's base in Astoria known as Air Station Astoria.

Watch a Coast Guard video of the rescue drills

Last week, the U.S Coast Guard Advanced Helicopter Rescue School (AHRS) in Astoria hosted their first joint agency class for law enforcement and first responders not in the Coast Guard.

The training attracted participants from Los Angeles City Fire Department, Santa Barbara County, Calif., Fire Department and the Royal Canadian Air Force 442nd Squadron out of Comox, B.C.

Coast Guard instructors said they provided pilots and crews with training in heavy weather and heavy surf conditions to assist in the training.

“The entrance to the Columbia River provides the surf, cliffs, caves and weather ideal for training air rescue personnel to perform in extreme conditions,” an entry on their website said.