MyFox
 

andrea's spare time

by awatkins from fox-26

Last Post 7 days, 7 hours Ago


a u.s. coast guard crew plucked 5 texas a&m students out of the water this weekend... saving them after they had been floating on 4 life jackets for 26 hours! on the second sorti by a  coast guard chopper this crew was able to find them at 2am with high winds and 10 foot swells. talk to any of them and they essentially say "just doing my job ma'am" but these guys found the needle in the hay stack and their success should be commended.

the pilots: lt. justo rivera and lt. lee allen... rescue swimmer: chief al shannon.... :hoist operator : louis bishop. they all seem to love their job, and why not right? the people they save have probably already considered they may not live through their ordeal. when they are saved i would think they look at their life in a brand new way. and then there are the people who love them... who get their prayers answered.

i'm on my way to galveston now to hear from a couple of the survivors. i'm looking forward to hearing about their 26 hours at sea... what do you think they talked about? what would you talk about?

 

 

 

7 Comments |  Add a Comment

Member Comments Total Comments: 7
Page 1 of 1
Texasex read my blog view my photos
Jun 10, 2008 | 8:21 AM

Eating a steak and not eating seafood for a while...

yahyamoro read my blog
Jun 10, 2008 | 8:58 AM

26 HOURS IS A LONG TIME IN THE SEA ! THEY ARE VERY LUCKY THEY WERE FOUND . DISPITE THE FACT THAT THE WATER IS WARM IN THE GULF THIS TIME OF YEAR , I BELIEVE ONE CAN STILL SUFFER FROM HYPOTHERMIA WHEN IN SEA WATER FOR A PROLONGED PERIOD . WHAT ABOUT THE SHARKS ??? THE INCREASE OF SHARK ATTACKS LATELY HAD ME ALMOST WRITING THE CREW OFF WHEN I FIRST HEARD OF THE ACCIDENT . ALLAH AG GAF.FUR UR RAHIM ( GOD IS FORGIVING AND MERCIFUL ! ) MY CONDOLENCE TO THEIR BROTHER WHO PASSED AWAY ...

awatkins read my blog view my photos
Jun 10, 2008 | 10:28 AM

yahya i asked them about the sharks too. oddly, it wasn't the sharks that came after them... it was large schools of fish. they told me they would peck at them and bump into them and it was a bit creepy. then the former u.s. coast guard commander who was with the 4 students at sea (yes they were very very lucky to be at sea with him!) told me he only got worried when a 4 ft long fish started circling thme. i don't remember the name but it is known to be fairly aggressive.

yahyamoro read my blog
Jun 10, 2008 | 11:46 PM

YEAH , IT IS AN EERIE FEELING HAVING A LARGER FISH RUBBING UP ON YOU ... WAHOO AND BARACUDA ,AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE GROUPER FAMILY ARE AGGRESSIVE . THEY ENJOY EATING US AS WE ENJOY EATING THEM ... I AM GLAD TO SEE AT LEAST MOST OF THEM MADE IT .

Dudester read my blog
Jun 11, 2008 | 3:56 PM

Andrea, I'm a middle aged Walter Cronkite fan. Walter was a stickler about certain things, amongst them-confirming the story (2 confirming sources) and punctuation.

I wrote for a military newspaper for two years and I'm surprised that your punctuation is so terrible. My second grade teacher would've come after my knuckles with a ruler for what you did here in this blog.

awatkins read my blog view my photos
Jun 12, 2008 | 6:41 AM

hi dudester... i re-read my blog and realized there were a few typos that i would have cleaned up if i hadn't been in a rush to log off and get to the surviver news conference. i'm sure you're troubled by my use of colons and ellipses especially... and all i can say is, i write for t.v. not for newspaper. it's not that i couldn't proofread it for exactly the right punctuation. i could if i had to even though i'm a bit rusty. my focus in tv for the past 22 years has simply been telling a story interestingly and accurately. hopefully i do that when you see me on t.v. thanks for writing. i don't mean to be bothersome to you or anyone out there. ;-)

PBMom read my blog view my photos
Jun 13, 2008 | 4:55 PM

Dudester: You forgot to hyphenate middle-aged.

Andrea: I have since read that the Coast Guard only had about 5 minutes of fuel left when they found them. They have saved so many lives. I loved the movie "The Guardian" with Kevin Costner and I hoped it help give the public an idea of what their training involves and how seriously they take their jobs. I also recently saw a special about the Coast Guard tracking drug smuggling and showing the new technique the drug smugglers are using--submarines. They aren't quite 100% submersible yet but they are almost there with the design. When one thinks about how much water there is out there, there have a lot of area to have to police.

Page 1 of 1


Write your comment below:




awatkins

i love reporting the news... and the bright side of reporting before the sun comes up is that i can keep my cool! no melting in the houston heat at that hour. if you're up and about and tuning in, e-mail me a comment on the story i'm doing. we love to get your input. watkins@fox26.com

Member Since: 12/11/2006