Two Air Force A-10s rescued lost boater on Florida lake

Weeks after A-10s helped save two downed aviators behind Iranian lines, the Warthog community capped off the month with a third rescue: a 73-year-old Florida man who fell off his boat.

The rescue came as two A-10s from the 74th Fighter Squadron at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia were training over the Avon Park, Florida bombing range and received a call from local authorities to deconflict nearby airspace as part of an ongoing search. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office was using patrol craft, helicopters and even drones to scour the nearly 4,000-acre Lake Arbuckle for a distressed boater.

The A-10s then joined the effort with their high-tech infrared sensors.

Polk County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Brian Bruchey told Task & Purpose that the sheriff’s office had initially received a call from two boaters saying their vessel was broken down and they were stranded on the lake. But shortly after, he said, one of the boaters called again to report that the second boater had fallen overboard while they were sorting out the mechanical issue. Now he was missing.

When the searchers contacted the A-10s, rather than just clear out of the airspace, the pilots suspended training and came to assist.

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Along with direct attack, search and rescue is at the heart of the A-10’s flying traditions. The jets have long been the primary escort fighters for Air Force search and rescue helicopters, a role A-10s proudly refer to as Sandy missions. Pentagon officials said seven A-10s escorted two Air Force rescue helicopters on a full-throttle, daylight rescue mission of an F-15E pilot in Iran last month.

The flight lead on Wednesday, a Moody spokesperson said, happened to be a Sandy-qualified pilot.

It was already dark when the A-10s reached the lake, so the pilot used his night vision goggles from the cockpit to scan the waters, said 2nd Lt. Kristina Schlemmer, spokesperson for the 23rd Wing at Moody AFB.

The pilot noticed a dim light that appeared to be coming from a cellphone. When he cued his targeting pod to the area, he realized it was the stranded boat.

The pilot contacted the sheriff’s helicopters and directed them to the boat while the second A-10 pilot used the thermal imaging setting on their targeting pods to scour the wetlands and cold lake waters for the boater who had gone overboard.

Thankfully, the elderly man was only “a short distance away and near the shoreline,” the sheriff’s office said, adding that he had minor injuries to his arm and was taken to a local hospital.

Schlemmer said the pilots were happy their training came in handy.

“These requests happen very rarely, but in this case, circumstances lined up to have A10s in the area,” Schlemmer said.