Arguably the most widely recognized team of rescue-swimmer operators, the elite United States Coast Guard Aviation Survival Technician (AST)/Helicopter Rescue Swimmer team is called upon to respond in the most extreme rescue situations. High seas, medical evacuations, downed aviators, sinking vessels, and hurricanes are some of the deadly scenarios that Coast Guard rescue swimmers are trained to handle. The Coast Guard's team of ASTs is composed of about 350 active-duty members, and only 980 members have passed the training to become Helicopter Rescue Swimmers since the mid-1980s.
AST A School in Elizabeth City, North Carolina lasts for 24 weeks, and includes intense physical fitness, long hours of pool fitness and instruction, extreme water-confidence drills, and classroom instruction. The Coast Guard rescue swimmer training program is very challenging and is one of the toughest U.S. military training courses. Reportedly, only 75-100 Coast Guard personnel attend the school each year. The attrition rate in some years has been as high as 80%, although the 10-year average is just over 54%. Prospective U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmers are physically conditioned to meet high physical fitness standards. About half of prospective candidates make it to AST "A" School. Upon graduation, candidates must attend seven weeks of training at the Coast Guard's Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) school in Petaluma, California, where ASTs become EMT qualified. Rescue swimmers at Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, Alaska, must maintain the EMT-Intermediate level of proficiency due to the remoteness of their operational area and the number of medical evacuations performed by that unit each year. Once stationed at a Coast Guard Air Station, apprentice ASTs must complete 6 months of qualification on their respective airframe before moving on to finish their rescue swimmer syllabus and becoming journeymen.
The Coast Guard holds a one-week Advanced Helicopter Rescue School (AHRS, formerly known as Advanced Rescue Swimmer School) at Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment, Washington, which is host to Air Force pararescuemen (PJs), Navy rescue swimmers, and foreign rescue departments as well. There, students learn the challenges of vertical-surface rescue, cliff operations, sea-cave traversing, and extreme-high-seas rescue. AHRS is considered the premier helicopter-rescue training school of its kind by most military and civilian rescue operators.
“Rescue Swimmer.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 July 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_swimmer.