Future navy pilot.

High school junior Adam Smith was on vacation with his parents in Hawaii when he helped rescue an injured swimmer. "I was climbing a rock," he said, "and I heard people yell, 'Help! Call 911!' So I swam over to see what I could do. After the victim was brought ashore, Cpl. Quentin Gwynn and I determined that he had no pulse and wasn't breathing, so we started CPR until he came around." Gwynn, a member of the 11th Marine Regiment on board Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), handled the rescue breathing while Smith took care of the chest compressions, and the swimmer was soon revived.

A local Honolulu newspaper printed a story of the rescue and mentioned Smith's future ambition to attend the U.S. Naval Academy and become a Navy helicopter pilot. That caught the attention of an officer who invited Smith to join a Tiger Cruise on board Boxer (LHD 4). Lt. Paul Oden, a pilot for HC-11 Search and Rescue Detachment 6, acted as one of Smith's temporary mentors. "I took him up to the aircraft and basically gave him a tour of all the controls," he said. "He had a lot of questions and seemed to be really interested."

The first step Smith plans to take toward his dream after graduating from high school is earning a degree in engineering from the Naval Academy. For now, however, he can savor his time spent on Boxer.