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Maybe it was their training, or maybe it was their ability to react to a situation or maybe it was because it was the right thing to do. On January 20, 2008, Lt. David Cooper (MBA 2007) and Lt. Jason Maxwell (MBA graduate May 2008), unexpectedly found themselves in a dangerous situation. The two, NROTC Instructors, were training for an adventure race and had been bicycling. They headed out to kayak for the afternoon, and what they found in the Charleston Harbor was a challenge of a different sort.

Lt. Cooper said that they left Shem Creek and were paddling toward Waterfront Park across the Harbor. Once they reached the middle of the channel, Cooper spotted an empty kayak. He looked around but did not see anyone. Lt. Maxwell said they were between Castle Pinckney and Downtown, the current was moving at about 3 knots and the tide was going out. It was very windy. Then Maxwell spotted the empty kayak.

Cooper saw a woman on the pier, pointing and yelling about something. Soon he realized she was pointing to someone in the water. Cooper began to paddle off in the direction she was pointing when he spotted the woman in the water.

"She was swimming hard," Cooper said, "but getting nowhere."

Both men said that the air temperature was not that cold but the water temperature was about 50 degrees. Because of the wind, Cooper and Maxwell found it difficult to communicate and Cooper was yelling that he was seeing a woman in the water. Maxwell yelled to Cooper to go out after her and he paddled off to retrieve the empty kayak.

Cooper reached the woman and called out to her, "Hey, how are you doing?"

"I'm really cold," she told him. Her kayak had gotten tangled on a Crab Pod (a buoy, tied to a rope, tied to a crab trap) and she lost her paddle trying to free it. She had been in the water about 20 minutes. Cooper knew that he should keep talking to her while Maxwell was trying to retrieve her kayak. Meanwhile Cooper tried to paddle toward Maxwell with the woman holding onto the back of his kayak. However, the strong current and winds kept them from making much progress. Cooper began again to encourage the woman, telling her he would get her to shore.

Maxwell said that he reached the kayak and was trying to untangle it from the Crab Pod. He and Cooper were only a few hundred yards apart. Untangling the kayak proved more difficult than he thought and Maxwell said, "I thought I might be tossed off my kayak while struggling with the other one. It was completely snarled somehow on that crab pod."

Maxwell was not aware of any boats passing, but was glad when one did show up to help. The boat was able to tow Cooper and the woman to her boat where Maxwell was waiting. The woman got into her kayak and paddled up to shore at the Carolina Yacht Club. Cooper and Maxwell watched until she reached the pier and got off her boat.

When asked about their training, both Lts. Cooper and Maxwell agreed that their Navy experience probably helped, but a lot of their actions were based on instinct and helping someone in need, doing what was right. Cooper said that when he got to the woman, she said, "Good thing I have a life jacket on." But he said that she never panicked which, he said, "is something of a concern with someone in the water."

Maxwell said that in the Charleston Harbor, where you can be in the company of container ships, "wicked" currents and cold water, it is best not to kayak alone. And both strongly advised to "never be without a life jacket."