“Man overboard!”
The phrase was repeated by each member of the three-man crew as they worked together to bring the lone figure aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary boat just inside Barnegat Inlet, not far from Coast Guard Station Barnegat Light.
The crew consisted of David J. Helmuth, Len LaRosa and Larry Salmon, members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary Division 7, which serves Southern Ocean County. They were practicing the rescue of Sponge Bob, a headless and legless 70-plus pound mannequin dressed in a black and red wetsuit.
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