VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- It was a warm November day, but the water in Fisherman's Cove at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek were cold.
AZ3 Buddy Varnadore found that out when he jumped in to save a woman who had fallen in.
“Me and a bunch of guys were out fishing and I heard a big splash. Looked to my right and heard someone calling for help so I took off," Varnadore said about a month after the incident.
She had been exercising and fell in, witness John Kersh said. The woman couldn't swim.
Kersh, who was fishing with Varnadore that day, said his friend didn't hesitate to help when he realized someone was in trouble.
“Buddy’s like Superman, taking part of his clothes off to jump in the water," Kersh recalled over the phone. “It was like 80 degrees at lunchtime, but the water was hyper cold, so it shocked Buddy. He got to her and was able to kind of move her along the quay wall.”
And, like someone who's drowning is expected to do — and why experts say to use an object to get the person out of the water — Kersh says the woman pulled Varnadore under the water.
But he was able to eventually get her to the wall and up the ladder, even though barnacles cut up his feet in the process.
“You just don’t know how heavy someone is until they’re leaning on you like that," said Varnadore, who is in administration for the maintenance section of Helicopter Sea Combat 2 at Naval Station Norfolk.
Kersh said two others on site helped with medical assistance and gathering medical equipment to keep the cold and injured woman alive until an ambulance came. She was taken to the hospital and survived.
He says it was Buddy's quick efforts that saved her life.
“He assessed the situation like we train all our sailors to do, found out what his plan of action was going to be, and he executed it flawlessly and she’s here because of it," said CDR Tico Valenzuela, Varnadore's Commanding Officer in HSC-2, appropriately nicknamed the "Fleet Angels."
