TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale Captains Honored with Lifesaving Awards

Over the past year you have read some stories in the Offshore Navigator about TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale Captains going above and beyond the call of duty to assist in search and rescue efforts at sea. Recently, two of these cases have resulted in the captains receiving recognition on a national level. The highest honor was received by Captain Cole Sisler for his efforts in assisting Broward Sherriff’s Office in rescuing a man that had fallen overboard offshore Hillsboro Inlet. See the original story here. Cole has received the National Distinguished Lifesaving award from AFRAS (Association for Rescue At Sea) for his heroic efforts. He attended the annual C-Port conference in November of 2016 knowing that he was one of the finalists for the award and was shocked and excited to find that he received top honors!

C-Port also awarded Captains Eric Laury and Steve Reuss for their efforts in rescuing four kayak fisherman back in June of 2016. See the original story here. They received the C-Port Distinguished Service Award at the same conference!

TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale’s Director of Sales Barney Hauf commented “I know each of these guys takes pride in helping people that find themselves in a bad situation. Both of these cases and the awards that resulted help illustrate that the marine towing and salvage industry represents much more than just “Towing and Salvaging Boats”. Each vessel in distress has a person at the helm and may have other people on board that depend on skilled, dedicated mariners like Cole, Eric and Steve to come to their aid. Most often, the duties of these dedicated captains involve cases that simply require a broken down boat in little or no peril to be towed back to shore. But sometimes they find situations where they can help save people from potentially tragic situations where great peril is imminent. Situations like these make a career in the marine towing and salvage industry all that much more satisfying! Thanks again guys from all those that you have positively affected and from the Management here at TowBoatU.S. Ft. Lauderdale!”