At 1638 I hear a faint Beeping from my left hip area. *&%$&*^%$ Better not because I’m right in the middle of something and I have a half a dozen bikes out of the shop.
I look and it reads; “POS DROWNING AT CORBIN PARK ALL UNITS RESPOND PER 2329 4:38 8/25/06”. &^$#$&*&(^%
I drop everything and shove the bikes in and shut the doors. At 1640 I’m on my way. I cover the 4.3 miles and arrive at 1644.
I grab my shorty and boots, get them on but can’t find my fins. The river isn’t flowing much more than a couple of knots but I need my fins so what the *&^% did I do with them. It didn’t take long to find them as they were on my left arm. DUH!
I was getting briefed while I was suiting up and looking for my fins. A very drunk male was swimming and got swept down stream from the beach. He is now hung up on a big rock about 200 yards downstream.
I head for the water and grab a PFD from one of the Marine Deputies so I can put this guy in one should I need to.
Just as I’m hitting the water someone says, “He Moving!” I respond with, “He won’t be when I get there.” (JOKE)
I get to him and determine that other than being very, very, very drunk he’s in good shape. Not so come tomorrow.
A little while later I see this yellow ball that looks like a paddle wheel steam ship trying to go up stream at full power. OK, I can see now it is one of the FNG’s. I signal to him to quit using his arms. Once he did he accelerated and came right across the river.
While we are waiting for help on our side I just chit-chat with him. I ask him where his wife is. He tells me she is in Coeur d’Alene at a funeral. I couldn’t resist and pop off with “You know your widow almost went to two of them today.” He was so drunk I had to explain it to him.
All of a sudden he does the fur ball thing. I grab my fins and split a few yards away. The FNG left his fins but he missed them. I wasn’t taking the chance.
We deal with the drunk for about half an hour until we can get rigs across the river to give HIM a ride back. The FNG and I are going to do the Salmon up stream thing.
We made it about 100 yards or about half way until there was no slow water to be had. So we just ferried it across and got out.
When the lucky ^&&% got back to our side of the river he got testy with medics. BIG MISTAKE. He got a free ride to the jail.
In 30 years on this team this is the first save at Corbin Park. We have had somewhere around 15 or 20 die there. Most are drunk, wearing jeans and a big percentage get the, I can swim now alcohol course but when sober they are non-swimmers.
Oh well it was worth a couple of hours of OT and we got to go for a nice refreshing swim.
Gary D.
I look and it reads; “POS DROWNING AT CORBIN PARK ALL UNITS RESPOND PER 2329 4:38 8/25/06”. &^$#$&*&(^%
I drop everything and shove the bikes in and shut the doors. At 1640 I’m on my way. I cover the 4.3 miles and arrive at 1644.
I grab my shorty and boots, get them on but can’t find my fins. The river isn’t flowing much more than a couple of knots but I need my fins so what the *&^% did I do with them. It didn’t take long to find them as they were on my left arm. DUH!
I was getting briefed while I was suiting up and looking for my fins. A very drunk male was swimming and got swept down stream from the beach. He is now hung up on a big rock about 200 yards downstream.
I head for the water and grab a PFD from one of the Marine Deputies so I can put this guy in one should I need to.
Just as I’m hitting the water someone says, “He Moving!” I respond with, “He won’t be when I get there.” (JOKE)
I get to him and determine that other than being very, very, very drunk he’s in good shape. Not so come tomorrow.
A little while later I see this yellow ball that looks like a paddle wheel steam ship trying to go up stream at full power. OK, I can see now it is one of the FNG’s. I signal to him to quit using his arms. Once he did he accelerated and came right across the river.
While we are waiting for help on our side I just chit-chat with him. I ask him where his wife is. He tells me she is in Coeur d’Alene at a funeral. I couldn’t resist and pop off with “You know your widow almost went to two of them today.” He was so drunk I had to explain it to him.
All of a sudden he does the fur ball thing. I grab my fins and split a few yards away. The FNG left his fins but he missed them. I wasn’t taking the chance.
We deal with the drunk for about half an hour until we can get rigs across the river to give HIM a ride back. The FNG and I are going to do the Salmon up stream thing.
We made it about 100 yards or about half way until there was no slow water to be had. So we just ferried it across and got out.
When the lucky ^&&% got back to our side of the river he got testy with medics. BIG MISTAKE. He got a free ride to the jail.
In 30 years on this team this is the first save at Corbin Park. We have had somewhere around 15 or 20 die there. Most are drunk, wearing jeans and a big percentage get the, I can swim now alcohol course but when sober they are non-swimmers.
Oh well it was worth a couple of hours of OT and we got to go for a nice refreshing swim.
Gary D.
