In this episode of The Real ResQ Podcast, host Jason Quinn sits down with retired U.S. Coast Guard aviator Richard “Dick” Wright for an incredible look at a career spanning military aviation, combat, search and rescue, and the development of the Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Program.
Wright’s journey took him through the Navy, Marine Corps, Army flight school, combat operations in Vietnam, the U.S. Coast Guard, and an exchange tour flying search and rescue with the Royal Air Force in Scotland.
One of the most powerful stories comes from Vietnam, where Wright’s Huey was hit by enemy fire, lost its engine, and crashed into a river. Trapped underwater for nearly three minutes, he ultimately escaped—but the loss of a fellow serviceman during that mission would stay with him for the rest of his life.
After transitioning to the Coast Guard, Wright flew demanding SAR missions from New Orleans to Alaska, supported the 1980 Cuban refugee boatlift, and gained experience in some of the most challenging rescue environments imaginable.
Later, at Coast Guard Headquarters, Wright played an important role in expanding the Rescue Swimmer Program beyond open-ocean rescue, helping develop capabilities for cliff, cave, ice, and direct-deployment operations, while also contributing to concepts that helped shape advanced rescue swimmer training.
Throughout the conversation, Wright shares the rescues, losses, lessons, and people that shaped his career and helped influence the future of Coast Guard aviation search and rescue.
It’s a remarkable conversation with a man who simply calls himself “a pilot,” but whose impact reached far beyond the cockpit.
Enjoy!
Beyond the Podcast: Additional Chapters from Dick Wright’s Career
Following our conversation, Dick Wright shared several additional pieces of his remarkable military and Coast Guard career that we did not have an opportunity to explore during the podcast.
From the Navy to the Marine Corps
During the episode, we mentioned that Dick served in the United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard—but we did not explain the circumstances that led him from one service to the next.
After being discharged from the United States Naval Academy, Dick was placed in the Naval Reserve because he still owed the Navy a service commitment. In 1968, as the Vietnam War continued, he requested to be recalled to active duty and assigned to the Navy’s Swift Boats operating in Vietnam.
The Navy denied his request.
Still determined to serve on active duty, Dick began exploring opportunities with the United States Marine Corps. That decision marked the beginning of the next chapter of his military career and ultimately became part of the extraordinary journey that would take him through three different branches of the United States Armed Forces.
Leading a Caribbean Drug-Interdiction Operation
Another important chapter occurred in 1989 while Dick was stationed at Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City.
His commanding officer, Commander Mike McCormack, nominated him for a special drug-interdiction assignment. Rear Admiral Pennington, Commander of the Ninth Coast Guard District, personally selected Dick to serve as the officer in charge of an operation based in Curaçao in the Caribbean.
Dick led the operation from a Dutch naval air station, directing a pair of E-2C fixed-wing aircraft supporting counter-narcotics missions in the region.
When he arrived, relations between the Coast Guard detachment and the Dutch military command were strained. Dick’s predecessor had reportedly treated the air station as though the Coast Guard controlled it, nearly causing Dutch officials to withdraw permission for continued Coast Guard operations.
Dick was uniquely equipped to repair that relationship. He had previously lived in Holland, spoke Dutch, and understood Dutch culture. His family also had a meaningful connection to the country: Dick’s father had been knighted by Queen Juliana as a Knight Commander in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
Through diplomacy, respect, and his ability to communicate directly with the Dutch command, Dick rebuilt the relationship between the two organizations. The improvement was so significant that Dutch military leaders formally commended his team to the Coast Guard command in Miami responsible for overseeing the operation.
Under Dick’s leadership, the deployment became the most successful operation of its kind in several years.
Although this part of his career was not directly connected to search and rescue, it reveals another side of Dick’s service: his ability to lead complex operations, build international partnerships, and step into a difficult situation where success depended as much on trust and diplomacy as it did on operational expertise.
A Memorable Medevac from the SS Rotterdam
During the interview, Dick also recalled one particularly memorable—and surprisingly enjoyable—search-and-rescue mission: the medevac of an 84-year-old woman who had broken her leg aboard the SS Rotterdam in Glacier Bay, Alaska.
Shortly after our conversation, Dick’s wife asked him to retrieve an old scrapbook from their years in Sitka. Inside, she discovered a newspaper article documenting that very rescue. After all those years, the story Dick remembered so clearly was still preserved among the family’s photographs and newspaper clippings.
Dick can be seen in the accompanying photograph, standing in the rear on the right—back when, as he jokingly noted, he still had “a head full of brown hair.”
Of all the missions Dick flew throughout his career, it may seem surprising that this particular case remained so vivid. Not every memorable rescue is remembered because it was the most dangerous or dramatic. Sometimes it is the people, the circumstances, the teamwork, or simply the feeling of a successful day that stays with a rescuer for the rest of his life.
These additional stories help complete the portrait of Dick Wright’s career: a career shaped by determination, military service, aviation, international leadership, diplomacy, and a lifetime of answering the call when others needed help.
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