EAST LIVERPOOL - To local seaman Jarrod Reed and his shipmates, it was just part of the job, but to the five men they saved, they are heroes.
Reed, 22, a 2007 Beaver Local High School graduate, joined the U.S. Coast Guard last summer, graduating from boot camp Sept. 9 with the Lima Company.
He is assigned to the USCG Cutter Venturous, stationed in St. Petersburg, Fla.
While on a normal counter-narcotics patrol off the southern coast of Jamaica in January, Reed and his fellow seamen Charles Gray and Pablo Taborda Jr. saw a faint light flickering in the distance, bobbing up and down on the 12-foot waves.
As the cutter neared the light, the crew used an infrared camera to try and determine what it was seeing.
The camera picked up an image of five fishermen whose boat had capsized about 10 hours earlier in the heavy seas, clinging to the remains of their vessel.
The flickering light seen by the three shipmates was a cell phone being held aloft by one of the fishermen. Reed's mother, Tyra Gilkinson Reed, said that, while the men were unable to use the phone to make a call, its light was still working and they were holding it up as a signal.
The survivors were about two miles from the Venturous when their light was spotted.
"He said it was just unbelievable," Reed's mother said in an interview this week.
Although Jarrod Reed could not be reached for comment for this article, he was quoted in an official Coast Guard blog article as saying, "When I saw the survivors in the water, I was shocked. I didn't know what to think. I knew that someday I could make a difference but not this soon out of boot camp."
All five fishermen had suffered chemical burns from holding onto fuel barrels and respiratory injuries from ingesting gasoline, according to the blog account, which noted one of the men was also suffering from severe hypothermia.
All three shipmates are fairly new recruits, but Venturous' commanding officer, Commander Troy Hosmer, was quoted in the blog as saying, "This rescue shows that anyone onboard, even the most junior member, can have a significant impact in saving someone's life at sea."
Reed's mother said the men received a commendation from the U.S. Coast Guard as "shipmate of the week" following the rescue and that, although her son was home recently for a family emergency, he is now back on board the Venturous.
Prior to joining the Coast Guard, Jarrod Reed was an EMT-B for North Star Critical Care ambulance and a volunteer firefighter for Liverpool Township Station 8.
In addition to his mother and her fiance Mike Hissom on East Liverpool, the seaman is also the son of William Reed of Florida and the grandson of Keith Gilkinson of East Liverpool and the late Wanda Gilkinson and Helen Salisbury.
His brother, Jason Reed, has been serving in the USCG 10 years, stationed in Clearwater, Fla. His other brother, Bill Reed, lives in East Liverpool.
