Huntsville native throws a lifeline for rescues at sea in Alaska

on February 26, 2011 at 2:08 PM
Michael WallacePetty Officer 3rd Class Michael Wallace, a Huntsville native who is now with the U.S. Coast Guard at Air Station Kodiak in Alaska, helped rescue five fishermen during a storm earlier this month. "It's a day in the life for up here," Wallace said. "It's definitely a whole different world from Mobile Bay."
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The "mayday" call came in the middle of the stormy night.

While the crew slept, a 68-foot cod fishing vessel named Midnite Sun broke its mooring and ran aground at Tanaak Cape on the northwest coast of Kodiak Island, Alaska. Now, five men were stranded as 25-to-30-foot seas washed over the wheelhouse and beat the hull against the rocks.

On the other side of the island, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Michael Wallace, a Huntsville native, lifted off at 1:17 a.m. on Feb. 11 in an MH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter. The crew of four included the pilot, co-pilot, a rescue swimmer and 25-year-old Wallace, the "flight mechanic."

The Lee High School graduate's regular assignment is as an aviation electronics technician. A few times every month, Wallace takes a 24-hour duty rotation as a flight mechanic - the person who controls the dangling cable and hoist used to haul people up into the hovering helicopter and safety while relaying instructions to the pilots.

"The weather was pretty rough," he said during a recent phone interview from his home in Alaska. It was fortunate they didn't have to fly far. They arrived by 1:38 a.m. and found the powerful waves were causing the ship to crab along the shoreline. Winds were at 60 to 70 miles an hour.

"We had a 1,000-foot cliff probably 20 to 30 feet from the tail of the helicopter," Wallace said.

They make decisions as a crew, he said. Despite the conditions, they chose to proceed, "because those guys really needed to get off the boat. They were getting slammed pretty hard."

It was too rough to send down the rescue swimmer, so the team talked to the Midnite Sun's sailors on the radio, telling them how to make their way carefully to the rescue basket one at a time as Wallace lowered it to the moving deck. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard pilot had to jockey the Jayhawk, constantly maneuvering against the winds, maintaining a position 40 to 50 feet above the ship as it moved along the shore.

"He was an amazing pilot," Wallace said.

Five times over the next 40 minutes, Wallace hoisted his basket down into a 10-foot-square area on the deck, timing it with wave actions, weaving it among the cranes and outriggers on the fishing boat, to bring the men of the Midnite Sun up into the helicopter.

"They were really, really happy to be off that boat," he said.

No injuries, no problems.

"That case went absolutely perfect from start to finish," he said. "We got lucky."

It's more than luck. Wallace and the Coast Guard crew have been kept busy, and they were recently visited by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who went to Kodiak to commend them for their rescue efforts.

How does a hometown Huntsvillian - his parents, Karen and Mike Wallace, and sisters Leah and Lindsay still live here - end up fishing for survivors from a helicopter in Alaska?

After graduating from Lee High, Wallace lived in Auburn for a while and took a few classes. But he decided he needed a change, so he spoke with some military recruiters. The Coast Guard had a unique appeal for him.

"The duty stations were generally beach towns, and I like the beach towns," Wallace said, laughing. "That was probably the selling point for me."

Did it ever occur to him it might be a below-freezing beach in Alaska?

"It did not," he said. "Didn't plan on this one."

He served in Mobile for five years, where he met his wife, Michelle. They now have a daughter, Emma, about to turn 3 years old, and a son is on the way.

Opportunities for transfer and advancement are limited with the Jayhawk helicopter he's trained on, Wallace said. So they decided to "give the Alaska adventure a shot" and moved to Kodiak last August.

After spending his entire life in Alabama, moving to Alaska was "a bit of a shock," he said. "It's still kind of a shock. But it's absolutely beautiful."

And he gets to spend his days - and nights - helping people.

"It's just cool for me," Wallace said. "I absolutely love my job and that's hard to find nowadays."