An off-duty Coast Guard member rescued a man from the water Aug. 2 near Orange Beach, Alabama.
Shortly after his wedding, Petty Officer 2nd Class Zac Edwards, a Coast Guard member stationed at Coast Guard Sector Mobile, Alabama, was posing for photographs with his wife on Orange Beach.
A woman approached Edwards and explained there was a man in the water who was struggling returning to shore.
“I wasn’t going to let him drown,” Edwards said.
Edwards raced to the water and approached the man with a floatation device.
“He kept saying, ‘I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe,’” he said. “My goal was to keep his head out of the water.”
Edwards pulled the man toward the shore until he was unable to proceed due to the current.
A lifeguard aboard a personal watercraft arrived on scene and assisted pulling Edwards and the man to shore.
