Secret Service train in Outer Banks surf to save presidents

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Monday, June 19, 2017
Outer Banks (image source: Wikimedia Commons)
Outer Banks (image source: Wikimedia Commons)
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KITTY HAWK, North Carolina -- The surf along North Carolina's Outer Banks is the training ground for Secret Service agents learning to rescue U.S. presidents and their families.

The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Virginia, reports that 10 agents responsible for protecting President Donald Trump, his predecessors and their families practiced ocean rescues off Kitty Hawk this week.

The nine men and one woman spent two days on the Outer Banks learning to retrieve a victim under various situations and bring them to shore. The group then moved to the Coast Guard Air Station in Elizabeth City to work with rescue swimmers, jump from helicopters and wrestle victims into rescue baskets.

Special agent and water rescue instructor Sean Donlon says 75 of the 3,200 Secret Service agents serving around the globe serve on the water-rescue detail.