Hospital security rescues two capsized canoeists

Master at Arms Seaman Paul Wilson of Naval Hospital Bremerton (NHB) celebrated his 19th birthday on Sunday by giving the gift of life to others in dire need. The quick thinking and quicker acting Wilson swam to the rescue of two elderly people who had capsized their canoe in the cold waters of Puget Sound.
“If Wilson had not gone ahead and immediately helped out, the situation could have definitely turned out to be much worse,” said MA2 (SW/AW) Roberto Colon, NHB security watch captain, who along with Wilson, was on duty on Sunday when the need for water-borne rescue unfolded.
Colon and Wilson had stepped outside the hospital around 3 p.m. to begin their external rounds of the facility grounds. They noticed several boats off the Erlands Point area of Dyes Inlet, including a canoe with a couple that suddenly flipped over. The wife had a life jacket on and immediately started to float away, but the husband did not have a life jacket on, and was striving to cling onto the canoe.
Wilson, took off his blouse, boots, handed his gun belt to Colon, and jumped into the choppy water and commenced swimming to the floundering couple.
“The water was cold, but I really didn’t pay much attention to that fact,” said Wilson who has been in the Navy for 10 months and at NHB for one month. “I reached the wife first and she was more worried about her husband who she said had a heart problem. She had on a life jacket so her head was above water, but her husband was struggling and was getting tired and losing strength trying to hold on.”
In the meantime, Colon, after radioing the NHB dispatcher to contact Bremerton Police Department and Fire Department and notify the command, also took to the water to bring the wife in.
Although there is no formal training for NHB Security on water-borne rescue and Wilson does not consider himself to be an expert swimmer, he is not nautical challenged. His father used to be a life guard and he learned to swim at an early age.
Colon attests that even after Wilson did all that cold-water swimming, canoe-hauling and life-saving, he was a composed, modest and model Sailor who was just doing his job. “And when he stepped out of the water, he wasn’t even huffing and puffing. He even joked that he almost lost his watch.”
The canoeists were grateful Colon said.
“If we hadn’t been there, there is no doubt that the husband would have gone under. He might not have come back up,” he added.