07.21.2026
« Return to News#8 – Inside the Coast Guard’s Advanced Helicopter Rescue School
By Donnie Brzuska, Coast Guard Mutual Assistance
Every Coast Guard rescue is different.
The crew rarely knows exactly what they will find. A distressed mariner in breaking surf. A stranded climber on a cliff face. Families trapped by floodwaters. A lost hiker beneath a dense forest canopy. Whatever waits at the other end of the radio call, there is no time to learn once the helicopter is airborne.
That is why, each year, some of the Coast Guard’s most experienced pilots, flight mechanics and rescue swimmers travel to Astoria, Oregon, for the Advanced Helicopter Rescue School (AHRS).
Located where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean, Astoria offers one of the most challenging training environments in North America. Mariners have called it the “Graveyard of the Pacific” for generations, and the Coast Guard uses that unforgiving setting to prepare aircrews for the uncertainty that defines search and rescue.
“The first time they see it, it’s not out on a case,” explains Petty Officer 1st Class Jethro Hauser, a rescue swimmer instructor at the school.
That idea has shaped AHRS for more than 30 years.
Originally established in 1995 as an advanced rescue swimmer course, AHRS has evolved into an integrated school for entire helicopter aircrews. Pilots, flight mechanics and rescue swimmers now train together because successful rescues depend on crew coordination as much as individual skill.
Throughout the week, crews operate in 10- to 15-foot surf, execute vertical surface rescues from sheer cliffs, practice cave rescues in confined spaces, perform urban search-and-rescue scenarios and train in wooded terrain where rotor wash behaves differently beneath a tree canopy.
Each environment introduces new challenges, but the objective remains the same: build trust before lives depend on it.
“It’s kind of a dance between you, the flight mech, and the pilot,” says Petty Officer 2nd Class Jesse Cheely, a rescue swimmer and former student.
That coordination is refined through repetition. Aircrews review each evolution, critique every decision and learn from mistakes while instructors can intervene.
“The instructors put it well,” explains Lt. Ian Logan, a Coast Guard helicopter pilot. “They want your first time messing up a vertical surface hoist to be here…and not when you’re doing it live with a patient.”
AHRS is not designed to prove how capable an aircrew already is. It is designed to expose weaknesses in a controlled environment, allowing crews to improve before those lessons must be learned during an actual rescue.
Over three decades, the school has also become a laboratory for Coast Guard aviation. As the Service expanded its response to hurricanes, inland flooding and complex urban rescues, the curriculum evolved alongside it.
The value of that preparation became clear earlier this year.
Petty Officer Scott Ruskan, a rescue swimmer, completed AHRS before deploying with his aircrew to catastrophic flooding in Texas. During the response, Ruskan and his crew helped rescue more than 150 people trapped by rising floodwaters. The operation drew national attention and recognition. What the public did not see were the countless hours of training that prepared the crew long before the helicopter launched.
Those rescues were not improvised. They were built on years of disciplined training, crew coordination and lessons learned in places like Astoria.
After 30 years, AHRS continues to evolve alongside the Coast Guard’s search-and-rescue mission. Its purpose has remained remarkably consistent.
As one instructor explains, the school exists to “close the gap between the operators that they are and the operators that they can be.”
Standing Behind the Mission
Behind every cutter are Coast Guard members serving far from home during the toughest months of the year, and families managing the demands of military life while they stand the watch.
For more than a century, Coast Guard Mutual Assistance has helped those families through emergency financial assistance, education programs, disaster relief, and other support when life takes an unexpected turn. While Coast Guard crews keep America’s waterways open, CGMA helps ensure their families have someone looking out for them.
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Photo & Video Credits
Video by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jose Hernandez, Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Schultz and Petty Officer 2nd Class Erik Villa Rodriguez, Coast Guard Video Production Team.