Welcome to our very first Rescue Case Review. ‘Lifeguards 10-8!’ will frequently present unique case reviews just like this, encompassing both rescue and medical incidents taken from real-life public safety operations. The purpose of the case review is to provide a platform presenting both the perils and pearls of protecting America’s ocean, lake, and river front beaches.
What is a rescue case? The USCG no longer uses the nomenclature of “mission” to encompass rescues and medevac’s, as the term ‘mission failure’ was shown to be a psychological trigger influencing rescue crews to make poor decisions by ignoring catastrophic risk of a fatal sentinel event in order to ensure mission ‘success.’ Today, the USCG uses the terms ‘rescue case’ and ‘medevac case’ to individually classify both rescue and medical evacuation operations, without the addition of failure or success to classify outcome. Lifeguard’s 10-8! has adopted this reclassification of terms for the purposes of this podcast.
This rescue case review involves rescue team lifeguard Robby Hemphill and a distressed vessel in the middle of the night, mere miles from NYC. Dan and Mike will talk to Robby this high-risk incident involving a 36-foot sailboat that had run-aground on a shallow sandbar off the north shore of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Reminiscent of the types of rescues that were handled by surfmen in the same area of water over 150 years ago, Robby will take listeners back to that cold, dark, foggy morning when he responded to this once in a lifetime rescue. It will be easy for the listener to understand why the local fire departments, police officers, and media outlets adorned Robby with the nickname of Ninja Lifeguard, as things are not always as they seem.
Robby Hemphill has more lifesaving experience than the average lifeguard his age. He began as a junior guard when he was 14 years old and worked his way up through the ranks from ocean lifeguard to ocean rescue specialist-EMT to finally become the ‘Leftenant’ of a USLA certified agency and USLA certified rescue team. Robby has been volunteering on 911 ambulances and rescue squads in New Jersey throughout high school and college. Robby is an original plank owner and founding member of Sea Bright’s nationally certified USLA Aquatic Rescue Response Team, call sign – Surf Rescue Team 43-88. Robby earned a BS from the University of Miami in 2019. Currently he is serving the public, yet again, in a safety and military rescue capacity as an active-duty member of the US Navy.