Coming Back Alive by Spike Walker

Author:Spike Walker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2012-01-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

When Lt. Bill Adickes walked down the short distance from his office and stepped into the Operations Center in the remote Coast Guard outpost in Sitka, Alaska, things were already abuzz. Only minutes before, their SAR satellite had picked up a hit—an emergency frequency pulse—coming from a 406 EPIRB located 120 miles north and 60 offshore of the tiny Tlingit fishing village of Yakutat out on the Fairweather Ground in the Gulf of Alaska.

Typically, upon receiving a signal from one of the more primitive systems, such as the relatively low-tech 121.5 emergency locator transmitters, the Coast Guard would allow the satellite to make several more half-hour passes around the earth before launching an all-out rescue mission. With the older transmitters, it took time as well as a certain detachment to proceed rationally, a nerve-racking task, given the tragic circumstances that might be unfolding offshore. Impassioned as those in the USCG were about saving lives, it was essential to process the information gathered as unemotionally as possible.

But the 406 EPIRB system, Adickes knew, emitted an extremely reliable signal, with a low rate of false alarms. There was no need to wait for confirmation; no need to wait for the satellite to make another pass. The decision was made to launch immediately.

Born in Seattle, Bill Adickes moved with his parents to the Los Angeles area when he was just a boy so that his father could fly jets. His father was working full-time as an airline pilot for Pan Am when Bill joined the Marine Corps. Bill Adickes did his basic training in Quantico, Virginia, received his officer training in Virginia, too, and then was shipped to Pensacola, Florida, for flight training.

Fresh out of flight school, he completed two shipboard deployments. One was served on the aircraft carrier USS Okinawa in the Persian Gulf, flying combat assault helicopters. Officially, Adickes was there to maintain the right of free navigation in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. But the real reason for the military presence, Adickes knew, was to keep the oil flowing.

In 1989, Adickes joined the Coast Guard. His first assignment was a four-year tour piloting helicopters out of Clearwater, Florida, chasing drug smugglers and learning the rudiments of search and rescue. Then, in 1994, he was given the prestigious duty of flying rescue missions out of Sitka, Alaska.

On this night, Adickes would sit in the left seat, serving as copilot, commander, and navigator. Lt. Dan Molthen would take the right seat, the one reserved for pilots.

Lieutenant Adickes was a choice pick for the mission at hand. In 1997, Adickes had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (pilots refer to it as simply the DFC)—the highest military medal a pilot can receive during times of peace—for being the copilot and navigator during a wild high-seas rescue that saved the lives of two of the three fishermen of the sinking F/V Oceanic.

Not surprisingly, the highly decorated Adickes did not think of himself as the world’s best pilot. Like all of

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