U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Nicholas Mauricio, Petty Officer 2nd Class James Lowen and Petty Officer 3rd Class Bradley Beauchamp, each an aviation survival technician at Air Station Traverse City, pose for a picture in the rescue swimmer shop at the air station in Traverse City, Mich., July 31, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard)
(Tribune News Service) — Three U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmers who normally respond to emergencies on the water found themselves responding to a medical emergency on land when they heard an explosion near Air Station Traverse City in Michigan.
Last Thursday, Petty Officer 2nd Class Nicholas Mauricio, Petty Officer 2nd Class James Lowen and Petty Officer 3rd Class Bradley Beauchamp were walking back to the air station after lunch when an explosion occurred at a nearby welding shop. All three men heard the explosion and felt a shockwave.
While emergency responders were on the way, someone on scene told them medical help was needed.
“The swimmers grabbed EMS ‘go bags’ and took a personal vehicle to respond to the incident,” Coast Guard officials said in a news release. Once there, they were able to assist a Traverse City police officer who was supporting the neck of an injured person. They put a cervical collar on the patient, gave the person some oxygen and kept the patient stable until the EMS crew arrived.
“I’m just glad we were close enough to have a short response time,” Mauricio said in a statement released by the military. “Part of being a Coast Guard rescue swimmer is a bias for action, being able to respond at a moment’s notice regardless of the situation.”
“Thanks to the immediate response of our local EMS, we were able to stabilize the survivor and get him to a higher level of care as quickly as possible.”
The Air Station in Northern Michigan uses helicopter crews and rescue swimmers to respond to search-and-rescue emergencies and medical calls across the western Great Lakes.
©2025 Advance Local Media LLC.
Visit mlive.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
