Kingston teen dies off Plymouth coast, friend saved by Coast Guard
Kingston teen dies off Plymouth coast, friend saved by Coast Guard
“I read this online hanging on to every word and glued to the screen.”
A Kingston teen died and another man was rescued by the Coast Guard off the Plymouth coast after the pair’s 15-foot fishing boat sank.
“I’d heard this story earlier today while sitting at Chesapeake Regional Medical Center while a sister-in-Christ was having surgery. Her husband and I were sitting in the waiting room just talking. I had had the privilege of praying with her when she confessed Jesus as her Lord a couple of years ago and was blessed beyond measure when I got to pray with her husband, who I was now sitting with, a few days later as he confessed Jesus as his Lord. We were just talking about stuff in general”
David Hanson, 19, of Kingston, was found floating in the water unconscious. He was pronounced dead at Jordan Hospital in Plymouth.
“My Son, Bobby, called my cell phone and I answered. He said through sobs, ‘Dad, have you got time to talk?’ I said, ‘Of course Son.’ And he proceeded to tell me the story of the rescue that he and a couple other Coastys were involved in last night into this morning.”
The other man, Wayne Carlson, 20, also of Kingston, was clinging to a buoy just outside of Plymouth Harbor, the Coast Guard said. Carlson was treated and released from the hospital Wednesday.
“Bobby told me how they had rescued one man from a buoy, assessed him and turned him over to the Harbor Master boat so that they could search for his missing friend. He told me of how they found the man with the helicopter and rushed to him, of how he and another Coast Guard buddy reached over the gunnels and pulled the large man out of the water with seemingly ease, of how the man was unconscious and how he and the other Coasty performed CPR on the man until paramedics took over at the dock.”
Carlson and Hanson graduated from Silver Lake Regional High School in Kingston in 2008.
“He told me how the man in the water was around a mile and a half down tide from where they picked up his friend on the buoy and how his head was under water when they found him an hour and a half after they rescued his friend.”
The men were spotted at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday by the crew of a Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Cape Cod.
Both men were wearing life jackets. The water temperature at the time was 46 degrees.
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“Bobby told me about guys that have been up there for 5 years and haven’t had to deal with this and how he wasn’t sure how he was going to deal with this loss after being up there less than a year. He was upset that he couldn’t save this man. He was emotional that this happened and the loss of life. He was looking for answers from his Dad and I just cried on the phone with him. The two of us just wept on the phone. Everything in me wanted to reach through that phone and take my full-grown 26 year-old MK2 in the Coast Guard and cradle him up in my arms the way I did when he was a baby and just take all of the hurt and pain he was dealing with and put it on me. I wanted his aggravation, his tears, his pain, his emotional and physical loss to just be taken from him and put on me. Then I remembered. I can’t do that. Jesus already has. We cried some more. Now was the time to edify and morn together . . . we’ll laugh another day.”
“I told him how thankful I was to our Lord that He had placed Bobby there to save the man that they did save alive and how thankful I get just realizing my Son chose to save lives for a living. I told him how thankful I am that he has a heart for people and cares enough to morn for those he’s never met. I told him how thankful I am that he confessed Jesus as his Saviour so many years ago and because of that he isn’t facing this alone but is sheltered in the arms of our Saviour even now while he’s dealing with this loss. We prayed together and I hung up. I walked the halls of the hospital for a few minutes to wipe my eyes and gathered myself together and went back into the waiting room and sat with my brother-in-Christ as we waited to hear from the doctor on how his wife’s surgery would come out.”
“I thought of the family that would get the news this morning that their son wasn’t coming home today. I morned for them and I prayed for them and asked God’s immeasurable grace be placed upon them and all who come in contact with them. I prayed for my boy and what he’s dealing with as death has reared its ugly head in his career choice now and statistically will do so again. I prayed that his heart never grow dull to the leading of the Holy Spirit, that he be ever cognizant to the dangers of what he does for a living and that he may heal during this process knowing that he will never get over this loss but that he’ll slowly learn to live with it. I thanked my Lord that my children have confessed His Name and that they are in His care now. And yes, I thanked my Lord for my boy, my Son, my Coasty who is on watch and always prepared for that next mayday call.”