Coast Guard crew honored for Maine wave rescue - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Coast Guard crew honored for Maine wave rescue

SOUTHWEST HARBOR, Maine — A 12-year-old girl from Belfast who was swept out to sea with others by a rogue wave at Acadia National Park gave thanks to her Coast Guard rescuers Friday.

Simone Pelletier and her parents were at the Coast Guard station in Southwest Harbor as six Coast Guardsmen were given commendation and achievement medals for the rescue mission.

The commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Thad Allen, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, were on hand to present the awards.

“The ability to give somebody back their lives and to be recognized for that is a special feeling,” Allen said after the ceremony.

The Coast Guard crew responded in a 47-foot rescue boat Aug. 23 after a wave kicked up by Hurricane Bill knocked 20 people to the rocks and swept seven people off a ledge and into the ocean near a tourist attraction known as Thunder Hole.

Four of them climbed back on shore. The Coast Guard pulled Simone and a New York man and his 7-year-old daughter from the surf. The girl died, despite attempts to revive her.