Four Airmen help save Baltimore water-taxi victims

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Bob Haskell
  • National Guard Bureau Public Affairs
ARLINGTON, Va. (AFPN) --  Four members of the Puerto Rico Air National Guard were saluted as heroes at the National Guard Bureau’s joint headquarters here March 15. The salute came nine days after they helped save the lives of other water taxi passengers who were thrown into the frigid waters near Baltimore.

Staff Sgts. Alejandro Gonzalez, Antonio Acosta, Luis Nazario and Master Sgt. David Blakeley were among 25 people aboard the 36-foot pontoon water taxi. A freak gust of wind, called a “microburst,” caused the water taxi to capsize.

The Airmen kept their wits and pulled the ill-fated craft’s first mate, Michael Homan, out of the 44-degree water and gave him CPR. They pulled another man to safety and also rescued a woman, according to their accounts of the tragedy that claimed the lives of five passengers.

The four Airmen are serving at Bolling Air Force Base, D.C., with other members of the Puerto Rico Air Guard’s 141st Air Control Squadron helping to maintain air space security over the nation’s capital.

The four were sightseeing in Baltimore when they got caught up in the dramatic event.

“I applaud you for what you did,” Brig. Gen. Charles Ickes II, the Air National Guard’s chief operations officer, told them. “It’s hard to measure how much of an impact you guys have had. I’m sure that a lot of people will never forget you for the job you did out there.”

“We were just at the right place at the wrong time,” Sergeant Gonzalez said. ,

They first escaped from the overturned boat by opening and breaking out windows before turning their attention to other passengers, who were also in trouble.

All four Airmen were later treated for minor injuries, including Sergeant Gonzalez, who received eight stitches on the back of his head that he cut on jagged glass.

The Airmen feel lucky to be alive.

“I don’t know how to swim, so I don’t know how I got out,” said Sergeant Gonzalez, the father of three daughters and one son. “I just commended myself to God and asked Him to give me one last breath to see my children.”

“An angel saved me, because I cannot remember how I got out,” Sergeant Blakeley explained.

“As I came up, I saw our guys and breathed a sigh of relief,” Sergeant Blakeley said. “I saw a couple with a child, who still had two kids at the bottom, and they were screaming for someone to help them. I dove back down to the boat and reached inside the boat and felt a foot and pulled out the first mate. He was turning purple. Acosta and Nazario gave him CPR and brought him back to life.”

“An older man floated up and Acosta grabbed him by his jacket and pulled him in,” Sergeant Blakeley added.

Sergeant Blakeley also grabbed a woman who was drifting away from the boat and brought her back to Sergeant Nazario who pulled her out of the water.

Naval reservists and firefighters assigned to Baltimore’s fireboat unit pulled most of victims from the water and rescued them from the hull of the water taxi.

The two-ton craft had just pulled away from the Fort McHenry dock when the gust of wind flipped it over.

“When the Naval reservists came up, they got into the water without a second’s thought to get the others who were still down,” Sergeant Gonzalez said. “The rescuers did not even stop to put on wetsuits. They just dove right in.”

Michael Homan, the first mate, and his wife Peg thanked the Airmen during a 90-minute visit here March 14. Mrs. Homan gave each of them a crucifix and told them they were like angels, Sergeant Blakeley said.

“She told us we gave her the best gift we could give her when we saved her husband’s life and that she would pray for us for the rest of her life,” he explained.

“You’ve got to be proud of yourselves. God put you there for a reason,” said Col. J. Craig Brown, the Air Guard’s director of command and control, communications and computers. “We’re glad you were here. We’re glad you had a day off. And some people aboard that boat are very glad that you had that day off and that you were there.

“This just goes to show what you bring to this country and the world, your skills, your talents and your dedication,” said Brown, who credited them with living up to one of the Air Force’s three core values of “service before self” in 40-degree water.”