Tom to the rescue....

Long before I ever joined the U.S. Coast Guard, I was in the rescue business. From the time I was 5 or 6 years old, I was the kid who always took it upon himself to protect the weakling that was being bullied or the damsel being mistreated, even if it meant getting my own butt whooped in the process.

I learned how to do that from my father. He was a REAL rescuer, he was a military firefighter. I can remember at the age of 5, being in the living room of our apartment in Alaska. I was playing with some toys and my father was reading the evening newspaper. Suddenly a blood curdling young female scream reverberated up from the playroom in the basement into our apartment. Our living room just happened to sit right above that room.

I looked up at my father just as he looked at me and said "Let's go!". We both ran out the door and then down the stairway into the basement. As we entered the playroom I remember freezing in place as I witnessed an older boy, maybe 10 or 11, with his hands around the neck of a little girl my age. She was screaming and turning purple at the same time. The room was filled with kids of all ages but not one of them was trying to rescue the little girl; the boy looked like he had absolutely no intention of letting go of her either.

I remember looking up at my father and he simply said to me "Go take care of it."

So I did.

I quickly ran toward the boy who was a couple of inches taller than me, I pushed him as hard as I could which took him by surprise and so he dropped his hold on the little girl's neck. The look on his face was priceless, like "what's a little wimp like you gonna' do about it?". I surprised him again by quickly clenching my fist and punching him in the nose as hard as I could. The blood started spurting immediately.

Talk about a look of disbelief in someones eyes. I remember the wide-eyed kid backing up away from me and then leaning against the playroom wall. He kept holding his nose to try and get the bleeding to stop. All of the other kids started cheering for me and the rescued little girl walked over and gave me a big hug.

A hero was born. A legacy had been continued - and I would regret it for the rest of my life.