Navy swimmer talks about weekend rescue

ABOARD USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER - A Norfolk-based sailor who jumped into icy waters to save a boater talked about the rescue with WAVY.com.

The rescue started Saturday night and was completed Sunday morning, just hours after the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower left Naval Station Norfolk on deployment.

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Kyle Need, a Virginia Beach native and Cox High School graduate, was the helicopter rescue swimmer who pulled Dennis Clements out of the water 300 miles off the North Carolina coast after his sailboat capsized.

"It took me a little bit to swim over there," Need recounted to WAVY.com. "I was getting knocked around pretty well and once I got to the side of the raft, yelling with him was working pretty well. We were communicating pretty effectively and he was very gracious and very adamant, ready to get out of the raft as quickly as possible."

"He was just very happy, thanking us over and over," Need said of Clements.

The weekend rescue was not PO2 Need's first. In March of 2008 he says he helped rescue a sailor blown off the flight deck of another carrier.