The United States Coast Guard Aviation Survival Technician (AST)/rescue swimmer school in Elizabeth City, North Carolina is 18 weeks long, along with four required weeks at the Coast Guard's Emergency Medical Technician(EMT) in Petaluma, California, where ASTs learn to be qualified EMTs. Rescue swimmers at Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, Alaska must maintain EMT II level of proficiency due to the remoteness of their operational area and the number of medevacs performed by that unit each year. The Coast Guard rescue swimmer training program is very challenging. Reportedly, only 75–100 Coast Guard personnel attend the school each year. The attrition rate in some years has been as high as 80%, though the 10 year average is just over 54%. There is a four- to six-month build-up training at an op.
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