Marine Company 1 of the Wantagh Fire Department was called recently by the Coast Guard to assist with a possible drowning victim. They had been providing protection and returning from a Benefit Canoe Race hosted by the Massapequa Fire Department when the call came in.

The crew consisting of Captain Chris Gallagher, Pilot Joe Donohue, Medical Technician Andrew Gabor and Crewman Bill Tergesen responded to the west side of the main Meadowbrook Bridge. There they found Coast Guard personnel standing on a sandbar and holding a man afloat on a backboard.

He was identified as John Rottkamp, 68, of Levittown. He along with his brother Ray, of Glen Cove, and a neighbor, Mitch Connohie of Levittown had been clamming when Rottkamp sunk into soft mud. Trapped and sinking, he fell face down in the water as his brother and neighbor came to his rescue. They removed him from his entrapment and called the Coast Guard, which was directly across Jones Inlet, via cell phone for assistance. Rottkamp was conscious but had ingested sea water.

Marine 1 arrived within minutes, beaching the boat and stabilizing Rottkamp. He was moved to a police helicopter, which also landed on the sandbar and flown to Nassau University Medical Center. He remained in the Intensive Care Unit for several days and was released.

Rottkamp is the father of John Rottkamp, an ex-chief and a current fire commissioner of the Levittown Fire Department.

"Those guys were great and I can't thank them enough," the elder Rottkamp said. "I'm just happy it turned out the way it did."

The boat was obtained through the efforts of State Senator Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr. through a grant that was approved for the Wantagh Fire Department after 9/11. It is manned by Wantagh firefighters and has responded to alarms from Jones Inlet on the west, Gilgo Beach on the east and all areas in between as requested by mutual aid departments.