A Day in the Life is a monthly series in which we highlight some of the area’s more interesting jobs and how these people interact with the community.
Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Gage Downer hates being warm, so the most uncomfortable part of ice rescue drills is standing around fully dressed in his rescue gear.
The multi-layered outfit, designed to keep the rescuer warm and dry, does its job almost too well, said Downer, assigned to Coast Guard Station Erie at Presque Isle State Park.
“When we go on a rescue call, I am one of the ones who keeps the top of my outer shell tied around my waist until we arrive,” Downer said. “Otherwise I get too warm. I’m always warm. That’s why I keep taking northern assignments.”
Downer, 28, has been in the Coast Guard since 2018 and is the longest serving member at the Erie station, having been assigned there in July 2021. He previously served in Minnesota and Oregon.
His official job with the Coast Guard is boatswain’s mate. He operates Coast Guard boats, works with charts and enforces maritime laws.
But when Presque Isle Bay freezes over and Lake Erie is covered with ice, Downer’s most important job — and that of almost all of the other 20 active-duty Coast Guard members stationed in Erie — is ice rescue.
“Everyone here, except our cook, has either been trained in ice rescue or is currently going through training,” Downer said. “In 2024, I went through training on how to teach ice rescue.”
Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Gage Downer, right, latches onto Coast Guard Machinery Technician 2nd Class Britney Benoit during an ice rescue drill Feb. 3 in the waters off Coast Guard Station Erie at Presque Isle State Park.
The Erie station is responsible for ice rescues on Presque Isle Bay and a section of Lake Erie stretching from Geneva, Ohio to Dunkirk, New York. They might assist first responders for rescues on other bodies of water, if asked.
When they get a call, either from a 911 dispatcher or one made directly to the station, a four-member team leaves in a customized truck filled with rescue equipment.
“It’s the driver and three rescuers,” Downer said. “One is the team lead, who communicates with the command center. Another is the primary rescuer and the other is the secondary rescuer.”
Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Gage Downer demonstrates how to use an ice staff, a wooden stick with a metal tip, to find unsafe areas of ice during a rescue attempt. He is joined by Zeus, the security dog at the Coast Guard Station Erie at Presque Isle State Park.
Downer finds man wandering frozen Lake Erie
Downer has participated in three ice rescues during his time in Erie, all of which happened last winter.
One was a simple miscommunication. A caller said there was an unconscious man on the ice, but Downer and the team discovered it was a Christmas tree left by an ice fisherman to mark his spot.
Another incident was a cross-country skier who didn’t realize that he was traveling across recently broken ice in the channel between Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie.
“We also got a call for a guy out on the ice,” Downer said. “It was a man in his 30s, about 800 to 1,000 yards out on the lake, drinking a beer and smoking a cigar, only wearing jeans, sneakers and a puffer coat.
“I asked what he was doing and he said, ‘Just checking it out,'” Downer said.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Gage Downer briefs the staff, including Chief Petty Officer Gaaron Blanchard, right, about an upcoming ice rescue drill at Coast Guard Station Erie at Presque Isle State Park.
Twice weekly rescue training keeps skills sharp
Since ice rescues don’t happen regularly, team members practice their skills twice a week in the waters behind the Coast Guard station next to Horseshoe Pond.
Propeller-like devices are used to keep the water from freezing near the station’s piers. It also creates a thin ice shelf that helps the training sessions seem more realistic.
“When we go on a rescue run, it’s not someone who’s in a nicely cut square hole in a foot of ice,” said Chief Petty Officer Gaaron Blanchard, officer in charge of the Erie station. “You have broken ice or a thin ice shelf that can give way.”
To emphasize his point, Blanchard — who was wearing ice rescue gear — jumped several times on the ice shelf until it gave way and sent him into the frigid water.
Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Gage Downer inspects a repair he made on the sleeve of an ice rescue suit before a rescue drill Feb. 3 at Coast Guard Station Erie at Presque Isle State Park.
Downer was among the five team members participating in the training session. He pulled a fellow team member out of the water in one exercise and worked a tow rope in another.
“If you find yourself in cold water, the most important thing to do is to keep yourself calm,” Downer said. “Get to the ice shelf and try to rescue yourself by rolling onto the shelf.”
Downer scheduled to leave Erie later this year
Downer expects to be transferred later this year. He already received a one-year extension to his four-year assignment in Erie.
He’s hoping to serve on the Coast Guard Cutter Osage in Sewickley. It’s close to his family in the Pittsburgh area.
“If not there, then I hope it’s not somewhere too warm,” Downer said with a smile.
Contact David Bruce at dbruce@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNBruce.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie Coast Guard officer on dangers of ice rescue on Lake Erie