CWO Steve Hathaway (Ret.) talks the first years of the Coast Guard’s Helicopter Rescue Swimmer Program and what it took to prove swimmers could save lives, responding to a plane crash in the swift waters of an Alaskan river, a tough MEDEVAC off Oahu, the aftermath of Hurricane Iniki, a boat fire in the frigid waters of Cape Cod, and the aerial delivery of a boarding team far from shore to stop a massive human smuggling attempt.