There were a handful (less than a half dozen) of CG swimmers all trained by the Navy in P'cola prior to the end of 1984. In early 1985 they helped establish the helo swimmer deployment procedures and then went on to become the first rescue swimmer capable unit in Elizabeth City later in 1985. The second group formed a similiar unit in San Francisco at the end of 1985. The movie came out in May 1986. It was filmed throughout 1985. There were no CG swimmers on the west coast when that part of the movie was filmed. Hence a Navy swimmer.I had to look on our historian's website, but the first CG rescue swimmers graduated in 1984. Top Gun is a 1986 film. The Coast Guard had rescue swimmers before it had a rescue swimmer school....
Any CG "swimmers" prior to 1984 would have been totally unauthorized and probably never came off the cable or out of the basket. The CG was very much opposed to the swimmer concept and implimented the program only after a Congressional mandate due to the sinking of the Marine Electric off the Virginia coast in Feb 1983 where over 30 sailors perished because of the CGs position. The three who were rescued were by PO John McCann when the Navy was finally called in out of NAS Oceana after they had been in 28 degree water for over an hour.
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