You are on patrol and the radio cracks alive. The dispatcher gives you an assignment “plane crash about 1-2 miles east of McKinley Marina, no further information available.” Moments later the cell phone rings and your Coast Guard counterparts relay to you the same information. Your heart starts pounding, your senses awaken, and you and your partner plot your course and speed to the area of the crash.

Moments later you get an update the plane was a small private jet with an unknown number of passengers aboard. As you race to the scene you and your partner use every sense available. Your eyes are scanning the horizon with the powerful binoculars on board. You look for something out of the ordinary, a glimmer on the water, a flailing arm signaling for help, debris on the surface, and the smell of Jet A, anything.

You and your partner silently glance at each other. Words are not necessary. You both know the realities of a jet crashing into the water. You know in your heart of hearts death comes instantly to those in a crash of this type. But the hope of survivors is always in the back of your mind. You say a prayer to God for hope and faith because in the measureless realm of time we know how brief is our earthly life, yet how momentous and eternal are its issues.

About 20 minutes have passed. You and your partner have found ground zero and discover before you Jet fuel sheen on the water. You and the Coast Guard work as a team and conduct grid searches to look for survivors. Your senses are heightened to their max because you are now in a very lethal situation.

The men and woman of the Milwaukee Police Department Harbor Patrol are well trained, hard working, dedicated professionals. They put their life on the line in the defense of others. Their area of responsibility (AOR) covers 948 square miles of Lake Michigan. They conduct about 175 Search and Rescues (SARS) each year in the nastiest of weather conditions. Without local security there is no national security.

They are mentally and emotionally committed to the task at hand. They stand between right and wrong on the behalf of society and make that commitment and significant sacrifices in terms of family, time and stress of seeing things no one should have to see. But they are willing to do it day in and day out.

Their training has taught them proven methods of search under heavy adversity. They use an uncompromising system of practical proven techniques with intense mental conditioning. The minutes have become hours. Reality is about to set in.

You notice debris on the surface. Upholstery, foam, bits of clothing, feet, hands, limbs. Before you is the shocking reality and aftermath of a horrific jet crash.

For a moment your mind wanders and you wonder about the final moments of terror those persons must have felt before they crashed. You shudder, shake it off, and get back to your task at hand. The inevitable is now a reality. Your search will now become a recovery. For the next several hours you collect whatever can be found. Tomorrow will come quickly.

You head home and cope with it in your own way. The images, sights and smells forever etched in your memory. But, you can look into the mirror and say job well done. I did everything possible, I never gave up.

You know that you were loyal to your convictions and know that a trustful faith is greater than knowledge and that without faith in God, the suffering and trials in life would be unbearable. You hug your kids good night, snuggle up to your wife, kiss her good night, and wake up the next morning and do it all over again.

Don recently retired from the Milwaukee Police Department. Prior to his retirement he was in charge of the Milwaukee Police department Harbor Patrol. He was responsible for the training and selection of those members involved in this operation. This story is his own, and his perception of what it would have been like on the lake this past week.