Incredible Rescues and Saves When I think about this subject, the first thing that comes to my mind is the incredible landing in 2009 made by Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot of a commercial flight. The plane was an Airbus A320 when his plane which was taking off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport hit a flock of birds causing the engines to stall. He looked around but did not have much choice of where to try and make an emergency landing. He had no power so he had to make his landing work even though his only choice was to land on the Hudson River. Water landings are extremely hard to do, you have to make a perfect landing and just skim the surface and Sullenberger did just that and saved the lives of everyone on the plane and became an instant hero. It was 1983 and the height of the Cold War. Stanislav Petrov was a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Air Defense Forces. Both sides were on the edge of a razor blade and the situation led to some being trigger happy. The Soviet radar showed a missile heading from the United States to the Soviet Union. The top brass order Petrov to launch tis nuclear missiles at the United States. Petrov didn’t think this made any sense. He told his superiors if the United States was going to launch an attack, they wouldn’t send only one missile. After what must have been much discussion, his superiors relented and the result was the missile never existed, it was a bug in the Soviet system. Colonel Petrov had saved the world from a nuclear disaster. In 1987 Jessica McClure was in the backyard playing with other children. Unfortunately, she somehow fell into an abandoned well and was wedged in a crevice about 22 feet down. The baby was in that spot for hours while workers feverishly tried to figure out how to free her. The event became a television sensation as people all over the world watched with their hearts pounding, and praying for her quick recovery. It took an incredible 58 hours to free Jessica. The event caused the baby to lose part of her left foot and have circulation problems. One of the paramedics later suffered post-traumatic stress, which was believed to have been caused by the incident and he committed suicide. NASA deserves credit along with Grumman Corporation for saving the lives of the astronauts on Apollo 13. The whole world watched the progress of Apollo 13 and were horrified when an explosion took place on the way to the moon. The Apollo capsule was damaged so badly it could no longer support life and the astronauts were ordered into the lander which the Apollo carried for descending to the moon and back. At the time people were hoping there was enough oxygen for the round trip in the lander. A friend of mine had designed the communications antenna. The trip back to earth took 4 chilling days and when the astronauts finally made it home the whole world felt relief. Submarine rescues are some of the hardest rescues. In 1939 the submarine USS Squalus was doing sea trials when something went wrong. The boat began to flood. The captain and crew did everything they could think of to save the boat and themselves, but to no avail. The boat sank down to the ocean floor with 59 men aboard. Up to that point no submarine rescue was ever successful if the depth was more than 20 feet. Unfortunately for the Squalus it sat at a depth of 240 feet. Immediately, the event became world famous. New methods never used before were tried which included a diving bell never used before. All the men were eventually rescued. The rescue crew received 4 medals of honor, 46 Navy Crosses and a Distinguished Service Medal. Decisions were made on the fly which had life and death consequences and thankfully they were the right ones. Sometimes mountain climbers can really get themselves into trouble. They are not only subject to accidents but to weather and fatigue. A group of 16 climbers became stranded on mount Tibrogargan. The mountain is in Queensland, Australia. A rescue team had to be called. The rescuers were able to get to the climbers and lower them to the ground by using ropes. Luckily only one person had a slight injury to her leg. In almost every war there is a prison camp escape. Some are more daring than others, but they can be life savers. In World War II there was a camp established for captured officers. The camp was known as Oflag IV-C. The camp was on a cliff that overlooked the town of Colditz. The camp had been declared escape proof by Field Marshal Herman Goring. Multiple escape attempts from the camp were successful which must have made Goring look like rather the fool. It is said 32 people escaped over a period of time. One can only imagine how hard it must have been to plan an escape after the first successful one. World War II had some incredible events connected with it. Hiroo Onada was an intelligence officer for the Japanese Imperial Army during that time. The war ended in 1945, but Onada didn’t know it and hid in the jungle in the Philippines. Many years later while hiding he met some resistance and he and three other holdouts encountered police and were involved in shootouts. He believed this was still part of the war. Over the years the others left or had been shot and killed. A man named Norio Suzuki met him and told him a story about how the war had ended, but Onada said he couldn’t leave until his superior officer ordered him to. The man didn’t give up and found his former superior who had become a book seller and brought him back and he told Onada to stop fighting. Twenty-nine years had passed since the war ended. The world is full of incredible and daring rescues and escapes. As long as there is a need for such things they will happen. Some rescues take daring and courage as do some escapes. Others take skill and human kindness. In the case of Onada it took kindness and caring by Suzuki and as far as skill is concerned, Chesley Sullenberger had enough of that to save everyone on his plane. The men who rescued the crew of the submarine had both skill and daring. People like this always seem to come to the forefront when you need them.
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