Aviation rescue swimmer from Grand Coulee tells his story

After growing up in Grand Coulee, Michael Thomas now jumps out of helicopters in Bahrain. 

After graduating from Lake Roosevelt High School in 2016, Thomas went to Western Washington University to pursue a computer science major.

But after a semester there, Thomas headed in another direction.

His father Dale Thomas had been in the Navy, and friends had joined other branches of the military, so Thomas spoke to a recruiter who showed him the path to becoming an aviation rescue swimmer, someone who jumps from a helicopter into the ocean to rescue those in danger.

"I just wanted a challenge," Thomas said over the phone June 11. 

The path to becoming an aviation rescue swimmer took Thomas to Chicago, Illinois for basic training, then to Pensacola, Florida for naval candidate and aviation rescue swimmer schooling, and then to Norfolk, Virginia for flight school. 

The path to becoming an aviation rescue swimmer takes one-and-a-half to two years as a student, and then another year or two before becoming fully qualified. Thomas achieved that goal earlier this month.

A large part of the job is performing medical evacuations, he said.

"If somebody on a ship broke their arm or something, we would pick them up," he said. "Any medical situations, we could tend to those, and fly them from a ship to a medical center."

People with medical emergencies at sea could range from civilians to those on commercial boats or other military personnel.

"Literally anybody," Thomas said. 

He said he has been on 10 missions involving different types of situations.

"We don't just do search and rescue," he said, "we also do close air support, non-combative environment operations, humanitarian aid/disaster relief, combat search and rescue, and maritime interdiction operations, just to name a few. A lot of the stuff we do is involving working with other assets like marines, Coast Guard, SEAL teams, even foreign ally special forces."

A mission might include jumping out of a helicopter while attached to it with a gunner's belt, a two-inch strap with heavy-duty carabiners on each end.

After jumping out, the helicopter pilot either hovers it above the water without moving, or moves slowly above the water; then the crew chief tells the aviation rescue swimmer when he or she is good to detach and jump into the water.

"Then the helicopter will get out of the hover and go into a forward flight, basically fly in circles, called an overhead," Thomas explained.  "Once the swimmer is done with the survivor, we signal the helicopter to pick us up."

"There's a high adrenaline rush, but throughout the training you're put in stressful situations constantly," he said about the intensity of the work. "The road to getting to your squadron, it kind of prepares you for being in the stressful environment, being in control, and making smart decisions. There are a lot of options as to how to get the survivor out of the water depending on their injuries, and you have to make those decisions smartly while in that environment."

Thomas has spent months at a time in Bahrain, an island country in the Persian Gulf east of Saudi Arabia. 

With people he knows there and almost everyone speaking English, he feels comfortable there.

"It's a melting pot," he said. "The majority of the population is from outside the country trying to get work. ... We can eat at local restaurants, there's grocery stores. We can cook home-cooked meals."

Thomas said you could eat pizza one day and curry the next.

The variety of the lifestyle of an aviation rescue swimmer suits him just fine. 

"I'm the type of person that's always changing what I'm doing and I get into a lot of different things," he said, "and with my job we have like 20 different missions we can do. My schedule changes every single day. It keeps it exciting. ... I love it, it's a good time. Growing up, I always wanted to fly in a helicopter, but it was never my intention to do this."

Thomas' parents, Dale and Sabine, whom he visited earlier this month while on leave, are supportive of him being an aviation rescue swimmer. 

"They're on board with it, they're all about it," Thomas said.