Dan’s Papers September 24, 2010 danshamptons.com P age 21
WATER WINGS RESCUE IN THE POOL By Dan Rattiner The pictures that you see above were taken in the indoor swimming pool at Sportime, the town recreational facility in Hampton Bays. They were taken about two weeks ago and what I first thought when I saw them was that these pictures were of a bunch of little kids wearing red water wings taking a swimming class. Upon closer inspection, however, I discovered these pictures are of something else. These are pictures of men, here in Hampton Bays, who are perhaps the bravest men on the planet. The pictures show 20 members of the prestigious 106th Rescue Wing of the Air National Guard based at the Gabreski Airport in Westhampton. They’ve all gotten into their water wings and jumped into this pool to undergo new training procedures. What they did that day, I am told, is work on how they could help one another in the water in the event that the plane they were flying through rough weather went down in high seas. It could happen. The men of the 106th are the people who get
called upon to rescue mariners who are in trouble. Their exploits are legendary and have been memorialized in film, most notably in the movie The Perfect Storm. The 106th participated in the making of that movie, and were filmed in the helicopters and refueling aircraft that came to the scene over the Atlantic during that terrible storm. They sent men repelling down ropes from these aircraft into the 50-foot waves to save people who had been swept overboard from the ships below. They did it in the movie. And they do it in real life. The 106th are not only based in Westhampton, but are in constant training there and at nearby facilities. They have been called upon numerous times. Perhaps their most remarkable effort came about 15 years ago when a call came in that a freighter was sinking in the Atlantic off Newfoundland. The storm it was in was fierce. It was too far offshore for ships to get there anytime soon and none were nearby. The choppers took off from Westhampton and headed out into the storm. Their fuel range was
not nearly long enough to get them all the way out there. And so the four-engine refueling rescue planes that accompanied them—you see them lumbering through the skies every once in a while out here in the Hamptons, dark green and black four-engine propeller planes—flew out after the choppers, got in front of them and refueled them one after another in the air as they came through. They then went out farther and did it again as they came through. And with this method they finally were able to get the choppers hovering over the sinking freighter to first send down ropes and then rescue men who rapelled down to land on the slanting deck of the crippled ship. The seamen were then hoisted up, one by one, to the hovering helicopters and their lives were saved. There have been many such heroic efforts over the years. I recall another effort about 20 years ago when a fishing trawler brought up a net which contained what they believed could be a (continued on next page)
ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO BLOCK OUR BEACHES By David Lion Rattiner When you walk down the beach in East Hampton in front of peoples’ homes overlooking the ocean, you are not doing anything illegal. The beach is owned by the East Hampton Town Trustees. It’s a very simple concept: The beaches are for everybody. It’s a very important concept to tourism in the Hamptons and to commerce here, because if oceanfront property owners are suddenly allowed to say to anyone who is just walking along the beach, “You are trespassing on MY property,” it is going to dramatically affect the appeal of walking and visiting the beaches of East Hampton, which is the main reason any-
body visits or purchases property in this area. The law that has made this practice work in East Hampton has worked for centuries, dating back to the 1600s. It was common sense, and still is today, that the beaches of East Hampton are for the public to use. You can make laws around parking permits, beach access and things of that nature, but when it came to who was allowed to be on the beach, the answer is: anybody. The law is known as the Dongan Patent of 1686 and every local here is aware of or at least familiar with it. The law granted the authority to the Town Trustees who, in the name of everybody, “allow” anybody to walk on the beach.
The New York State Supreme Court in Riverhead will hear a challenge to this common sense law by some oceanfront landowners on a stretch of Montauk known as Napeague. One of them is the owner of the White Sands Beach Resort, Bernard Kiembock, who says that he’s fed up with people who are not paying to be in his hotel using his beach. This is especially true at night. Kiembock reportedly said that this summer, more than ever before, people were building bonfires on his beach, and at night, cars were parking and there for outdoor parties. The smoke from the fires, at least according to him, (continued on next page)