Four months in the Coast Guard and one woman is already saving lives. Seaman Stacy Sasser took action Monday and fellow Coast Guardsman, David Blonn is alive because of it.
"I remember being cold and wet but knowing why I was cold and wet," said Food Service Specialist Second Class, David Blonn.
David says he was carrying groceries aboard the Cutter Albacore at Little Creek early Monday morning.
“I saw the tide was real low and sort of had to do a maneuver that we've done a bunch of other times because of some poor weather where I had to climb onto the boat,” explained Blonn.
David slipped and fell, hitting his head and rolling facedown into the water unconscious.
Luckily, Stacy was doing boat checks right across the pier on another vessel.
Out of the corner of her eye, she says she saw groceries fall into the water.
"I went to come over to help get the groceries out and then I heard a splash,” Stacy said.
Stacy says she saw David facedown between the pier and the boat.
"I jumped down on the pilings and then jumped down and pulled his head up," she explained.
"I guess right when I came up, I started choking up what part of the Chesapeake Bay I had swallowed," David added.
The 34-year-old father of four can't recall everything that happened.
But, one thing he does remember - The moment at the hospital when he finally saw his wife.
"There were a lot of tears. She was overcome that, ya know, what I could have lost, what she could have lost," David said.
"It's still surreal to me but the fact, and being the holidays and everything, that he has the kids and a wife it's very nice to know,” said Stacy.
David is at home with his family recovering now.
He hasn't seen Stacy since she saved his life.
“I'm going to give her a hug once I can make the trip out there.”
David was recently honored for saving a life himself, back in August.
“Me and my chief, we all responded to a young man who had passed out and then experienced some seizures and stopped breathing and lost his pulse.”
