Story:  PA2 Brian N. Leshak

Photos: PA2 Brian N. Leshak & PAC Tom Sperduto

Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Thor Wentz spent two hours preparing his Coast Guard Tropical Blue Long uniform. He starched his light blue shirt evenly, adjusting the sleeves so he wouldn’t create any unwanted wrinkles when he pressed it. Then on to his low quarter shoes, waxing and buffing until his fingertips hurt. He walked up to the mirror and took a big sigh before departing his office to greet his final class. Once outside, he saw his soon to be students arrive. Wentz gave the nod to a fellow Aviation Survival Technician instructor to open the hatches and blast the students with the fire hose welcoming them to their first day of class.

Wentz is a chief aviation survival technician and has been for more than twenty-two years. A two-time instructor, he’s been training, conditioning, and educating rescue swimmers for most of his career.

"My first time instructing at swimmer school was between 93 and 97 when we still put our guys through the Navy school in Pensacola, and then more recently from 2003 to 2006," said Wentz. "I’ve been involved in instruction for roughly half my career."

 

Photo:

An Aviation Survival Technician steadies himself as he nears the helicopter during a hoist. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

 

 

Wentz is not known for any dramatic saves and he doesn’t have a huge number of rescues to brag about. What he does have is a reputation of being consistent, reliable, and someone to turn to for the right answers. During his career, he’s taught rescue swimmers how to survive in the harshest environments, how to perform CPR, and even how to sew.

Wentz hasn’t become a well-known instructor by accident; he comes from a family where teaching comes naturally.

"I’m the product of educator parents," said Wentz. "My father retired as a Navy captain with twenty-six years. He obtained his PhD and taught at the university level as a second career, and my mother has a master’s and taught at the grade school level for many years."

Wentz explained most people are uncomfortable speaking in front of crowds even when they’re the subject-matter expert, but he has little problem with it, which is why he was naturally drawn to the instruction side of his rate—a synonym in the military for job or career.

"I’ve had excellent training and mentoring early in my career," he said. "I’ve learned to do things thoroughly and to have a high regard for the seriousness of our jobs."

Photo:The aviation survival technician training is an intense and demanding program, with a requirement to pass a physical fitness test. AST School is located at Aviation Technical Training Center (ATTC) Elizabeth City, N.C. The course is four months long followed by three weeks of emergency medical technician training at Training Center Petaluma, Calif. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

 

Wentz’s reputation typically precedes him wherever he goes. His strict work ethic is what makes people either love him or hate him.

"Chief Wentz has positively influenced the rate in the multiple instructor roles he has been in," said Aviation Survival Technician 1st Class Miles Beardsley. "I had him as an instructor over ten years ago where he taught me how to sew."

Twelve students make their way to Elizabeth City at a time to try and become one of roughly 270 ASTs. History shows that six or more students from each class will not make it to the end of the sixteen-week class.

"We have to be tough, because it’s easy to quit in a controlled environment such as a pool that has a bottom and four sides. We can’t have our guys giving up in the middle of an actual rescue," said Wentz.

"The swimmer school I ran in Elizabeth City is less combative than the Navy school. We have a different enemy than the Navy does. Ours is the environment and that’s what I taught the students there how to handle," said Wentz. "The training we provide is still intense. We don’t train for the easy stuff; we train for the worst possible scenario every time."

Photo:

An aviation survival technician hangs from an HH60 helicopter. This is just one method of deployment that the rescue swimmers use to get into the water to assist others. A swimmer can either be lowered into the water or directly onto a ship, a cliff or anything else from which someone might need rescuing. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

 

Wentz is currently stationed at Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco where he’s in charge of a preparation process for aspiring ASTs. Students must go through the four-month airmen program at an air station where they will go through an extensive interview process before being shipped off to school.

"Everyone shows up in outstanding physical shape, but it’s not the physical strength that will get you through school, it’s the mental toughness," said Wentz. "That’s my philosophy."

 

Photo:

A Coast Guard rescue swimmer from Air Station Atlantic City prepares to enter the water off of Atlantic City, NJ, during a water rescue training exercise Sept. 18, 2006. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by PAC Tom Sperduto)

 

Rescue swimmers are accountable for more than being physically tough. Wentz explained that a student will spend more than four weeks alone in class studying a one-hundred-thirty-seven-page manual that teaches students ways to approach and carry a survivor, release equipment for Navy and Air Force flyers, detangle different parachutes and backpacks, and numerous deployment procedures. Swimmers are also expert sewers. Wentz teaches aspiring ASTs an extremely important part of their job, how to sew parachutes, flight suits and gear storage bags.

"During class, sewing is taught as a prerequisite to the paraloft phase of instruction," said Wentz. "Often, items are so specialized that there are none commercially available so we are able to custom make them to fit our individual needs."

After the sixteen-week training is over, it’s mandatory that all ASTs attend a four-week Emergency Medical Technician school at the Coast Guard Training Center in Petaluma, Calif., which Wentz has taught during his career.

"Our guys have to be completely and thoroughly ready for anything. Brand new swimmers can pop out of school and almost immediately by chance be thrown into a horrible search and rescue case demanding everything of them," he said.

Photo:

Coast Guard rescue swimmers from Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City train off of the coast Atlantic City, NJ, Sept. 18, 2006. (USCG photo by PAC Tom Sperduto)

 

 

Wentz was the seventeenth operational rescue swimmer since the Coast Guard first implemented the AST rate (job) in 1984. He’s nearing the end of his career and is thinking of the people who will replace him.

"I’m getting to that point where I have to start thinking of who will fill my shoes when I’m gone. I’m training my own relief. The Coast Guard needs to be left in good hands and I want to make sure of that when I retire," said Wentz.

Aviation Survival Technician 3rd Class Lake Downham is one of Chief Wentz’s reliefs. Downham was in the last class Wentz taught and coincidentally they both transferred to Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco.

"I heard war stories about Chief Wentz and his workouts before I actually met him," said Downham. "Once I got to school I learned quick not to make any mistakes in front of him, and to get ready when I saw him enter the pool building."

Once students arrive to school, senior ASTs give the newbies a rundown of what they’re in store for. But the reality doesn’t sink in until the students hit the water. Swimmers are trained to handle many situations; one of them is how to handle a frantic victim that may hinder the rescue.

"Most new classes are worried about all the physical training involved in school, which is definitely something to think about, but all the push-ups and pull-ups are nothing compared to sitting on the tower looking down at some of the best rescue swimmers in the Coast Guard waiting to attack you the moment you break the surface of the water," said Downham.

Wentz admits he really hasn’t thought much about what he wants to do after life as a swimmer.

"In one form or another I’ve instructed every swimmer in the Coast Guard," said Wentz. "I feel pretty accomplished. San Francisco will likely be my last air station as an AST and after that I’ll probably retire and be a greeter at Wal-Mart," he said jokingly.

Photo:Coast Guard Chief Aviation Survival Technician Thor Wentz (right) stands with his fellow crewmembers in a Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter hangar. Also pictured from left to right are Aviation Survival Technician 3rd Class Steve Murdock, Aviation Survival Technician 1st Class Miles Beardsley, and Aviation Survival Technician 3rd Class Lake Downham. (USCG photo by PA2 Brian Leshak)

 

After sixteen-weeks, seven of the twelve made it through Wentz’s class. He proudly shakes each of their hands before returning to his room. He lays his combo cover down on his rack for the last time as an instructor. His teaching days may be over at "A" school, but he still has a few years to work with the up and coming swimmers at his air station.

"It’s personally very gratifying to produce the next generation of a rate, my relief," said Wentz. "Their success is my success."

Petty Officer Brian N. Leshak is a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Coast Guard.  He's an information gatherer relaying the Coast Guard's story to the public.

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