Heroes who risk their lives for others deserve recognition
A Butler native had a firsthand encounter with danger and heroism recently, and his rescue is a reminder of the people who are out there to protect us.
As we learned in the Friday, Dec. 12 edition of the Butler Eagle, Zach Doerr, the 24-year-old son of former Butler County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Doerr, was one of the crew members on a catamaran headed from Connecticut to Bermuda in early November when it was damaged off the coast of North Carolina.
The crew was forced to abandon ship after making a distress call to the U.S. Coast Guard, and after hours in a life raft, they were spotted.
“Around 3 (a.m.) we launched the life raft and abandoned the vessel,” Doerr explained. “After about two and a half hours a plane from the Coast Guard base found us. We got their attention with a strobe light as the sun was just starting to come up.”
A helicopter was sent and had to stop on an aircraft carrier to refuel in order to reach the crew.
“The helicopter sent a rescue swimmer. He took us one-by-one into a basket, and we got lifted into the helicopter,” Doerr said. “It was still gusting, probably 40 knots of winds, and the waves had grown. Some of them were 15, 16, 17 feet.”
Despite his harrowing experience, Doerr said he doesn’t plan on slowing down, though he did admit his mother worries when he’s not on dry land.
Fortunately, when people are in trouble in the water, there are everyday heroes like Coast Guard rescue swimmers out there to keep them safe.
— JK
