Alone in the stormy Pacific, Eric Kaufman and his family waited for help after sending a distress message.
It was April 2014. Kaufman's youngest daughter, Lyra, then one year old, had become ill during the family's sailboat trip from Mexico to New Zealand. She was not responding to medication, and the boat had lost steering.
Suddenly a MC-130P Combat Shadow aircraft appeared overhead and Kaufman saw four dots exit out of the plane. The rescuers swam to the boat. That's when Kaufman met Tech Sgt. Nathan Schmidt, a legendary pararescue airman with the California Air National Guard who died recently in a recreational skydiving accident.
Kaufman said he was immediately struck at how kindly and decently Schmidt treated Lyra and her three-year-old sister, Cora.
"He's not dealing with a tough Marine that's hurt in Afghanistan," Kaufman said. "These are little kids that are scared. There's not a lot of people that you feel comfortable handing your small children to, and this is somebody who for three days could sit there and listen to my kids' jokes and could feign interest in all the things that they were interested in and could make them feel better and make them feel safe."
Over the next three days, Schmidt provided medical attention to Lyra, helped Kaufman pump out water, and all the time acted with a sense of love and compassion that went way beyond what Kaufman expected, he said.
"I think that is the thing that stands out most to me because you can't fake that; you can't train that; you can't instruct somebody to be a genuinely decent person – they either are that or they're not," Kaufman said. "You can't hide that for 72 hours on a small sailboat in bumpy ocean, sleep-deprived, wet. Who you are is going to come through. I saw just a really special person that truly cared about other people."
Schmidt was killed Oct. 11 in the off-duty skydiving accident at Hollister, California, according to the California Air National Guard's 129th Rescue Wing. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident, said 1st Lt. Roderick Bersamina, a spokesman the wing.
Kaufman said he kept in contact with Schmidt after the rescue. Both actively supported the "That Others May Live Foundation," a nonprofit charity established in 2002 that provides scholarships, immediate tragedy assistance and other support to families of rescue airmen who are killed or wounded.
"There's a lot more to Nate than him being a PJ," Kaufman said. "That was a large part of him – the kind of person that would do that kind of work is the kind of person who becomes a PJ ... and I'm really glad I got a chance to see it and the world is just a little bit emptier because he's gone."
Schmidt was assigned to the 131st Rescue Squadron at Moffett Federal Airfield, California.
An officer with the squadron described Schmidt as "always calm, cool and collected during the most chaotic times."
"He was highly respected by every single PJ and combat rescue officer," said Capt. Tristan, a captain and combat rescue officer who identified himself only by his first name, Tristan, did not provide his last name due to security concerns.
Tristan deployed to Afghanistan twice with Schmidt. When the circumstances were most dire, Schmidt was always sharp and "100 percent dependable," Tristan told Air Force Times on Monday.
"He was your go-to guy if you had something that was complex or difficult – you knew he could do it," Tristan said.
After the Kaufman rescue, Schmidt and other airmen with the wing were photographed with President Obama in May 2014 when Obama visited Moffett to thank them for saving the family and to congratulate them for rescuing a total of 1,007 people – the wing's total is now 1,010 saved lives. While deployed to Helmand province, Afghanistan, in 2013, one member of the 129th Rescue Wing took a Civil War tintype of Schmidt and other members of the wing.
"He was able to make split-second decisions that were always correct," said a tech sergeant Tech Sgt. Jacob, who served with Schmidt. Jacob also declined to provide his last name.
For the squadron's 1,001th rescue, Schmidt went to the aid of a Marine who was trapped at the bottom of a well in Afghanistan, the tech sergeant, who identified himself as Jacob, said. The young Marine had been trapped for about half an hour and was suffering from a broken femur and dislocated shoulder and other serious injuries.
"He was really pretty scared, but Nate went down 70 feet into this dark, dark well and hooked the guy up with pain meds and then gave him a pep talk about: 'Hey, this is gonna hurt but we're going to get you to my team up above and I'll be following you later.' "
The team was able to extract the injured the Marine within an hour due to Schmidt's ability to operate quickly, Jacob said. Schmidt had to sit at the bottom of the well for another 30 minutes as the team tended to the Marine.
"He was like PJ's PJ," Jacob said. "If he kept going, he could have been a chief."
