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We were listening and looking for anything. One of the other guys saw a helicopter from the J.F.K., and then as we crested on the next wave, we saw a second one coming. God, that was a beautiful sight. They came over us at about 500 ft., and we popped orange smoke flares. It was about noon. We had floated about 23 miles from where we jumped in.
The helicopters came around in a circle, into the wind, to get better control. Then they lowered a diver on a rope. Navy rescue swimmer Shad Hernandez came into the water about 30 yds. from us. He put a harness on each of us, and we were hauled into the helicopter, which was hovering about 15 ft. above the highest waves. I couldn't even hear it because my ears were so full of water. But when it got close, I could feel the beating of the blades in my chest. I'll tell you, that was a very nice feeling. Shad rode up on the rope with me--we were the last ones out of the water. I just kept saying, "You the man! You the man!" over and over again.