Coast Guard helicopter commander Ryan Popiel, who grew up in Thornbury Township and who spent childhood summers at the Jersey Shore, is now assigned to the Coast Guard Air Station in Atlantic City, writes Madeleine Wright for CBS News Philadelphia.
“Saving lives is the most rewarding thing you can do with an aircraft,” Popiel said.
He had been serving the Coast Guard at various posts around the country and is glad now to be back home with his wife and children, flying missions over the same waters he visited in his childhood.
Popiel is the executive officer at the air station, leading a team responsible for search and rescue missions that take them from the southern end of Long Island Sound to the Chesapeake Bay, and up to 100 miles offshore.
“We’ll conduct medevacs off cruise ships, commercial fishing vessels, recreational vessels,” he said. “We could also be asked to be searching for people in the water.”
The team must sometimes cope with extreme weather, low visibility, high winds, and heavy seas.
The station also aids in national security by protecting restricted airspace around the president and Washington, D.C.
This year so far, the air station has completed 96 rescues.
Find out more about Coast Guard pilot Ryan Popiel at CBS News Philadelphia.
