Amanda Burrill

I rescued a guy, he's alive because of me.

But it was more like, okay, I did the thing, what's next?

And maybe nothing was gonna be next because rescue swimmers spend most of their time just doing drills.

And one time, about halfway between Hawaii and Australia, we had an admiral embarked with his staff and they were there for our yearly evaluation to quite literally make sure we are running a tight ship.

And the stakes are really high and everyone's belt buckles are a little more shiny and brassy.

It's a perfect opportunity to showcase this rare entity my command has stationed on board, me, the woman rescue swimmer.

And so we're gonna do this man overboard drill and make it a real spectacle.

And so we start the drill, and I run out onto the fo'c'sle of the ship.

That's the very front of the ship.

And the way it is is there are these decks that look down on the fo'c'sle, and it's basically a stage performance, and I know this.

And I run out onto the fo'c'sle when the drill starts, and I'm wearing this shorty wetsuit, and you know, it's not even like zipped up all the way.

ponytail like swinging in the wind and I get up to the very front the bow and they help me into this harness which has a couple fancy knives and like a strobe light attached and the whole thing is just like really Lara Croft and the next step is for me to get hooked up to two lines one lowers me down to the surface of the water 70 feet below and the other line keeps me tethered to the ship

And the purpose of it is just in case the worst thing happens while I do a rescue.

Let's say I drown.

They have a way to haul my body back for the ship.

So I get hooked up to these two lines, and I get lowered down to the surface of the water.

And at the bottom, I'm able to clip out of the chain that lowered me.

But I find that this line that's supposed to have all this slack in it is tight.

And so I think really fast, because I remember, don't make us look stupid.

I grab the knife and I look up to my boss and I don't ask.