U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Zach Loesch is one of the many heroes of Hurricane Ian.
During an eight-hour shift last Thursday, surveying the wreckage around Naples and Fort Myers to look for survivors, Loesch rescued a disabled woman and her husband.
He did so after kicking in the door of their devastated home.
“I’m just trying to smile and be happy and show up to them as a light at the end of their dark day,” Loesch told WFLA. “A lot of them are desperate and need help and in despair. Everything they know is gone, and when they’re leaving with us it may be the last time they see their house.”
Loesch was part of a team that rescued at least 15 people and several pets.
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Loesch’s work earned him a call from President Joe Biden. “I told him how proud of him I was and thanked him for all the work he and his Coasties are doing to save lives,” Biden said on Saturday.
Now for the kicker: Loesch is expected to be discharged within the next 60 days because he refused Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Loesch reportedly requested a religious exemption from the vaccine, but it was denied, The Blaze noted. The appeal he filed was also rejected.
“If I had asked any of the people I saved yesterday if they wanted to come with me even though I am unvaccinated, every single one of them would have said ‘yes,’” Loesch told Breitbart news.
“It just sucks that he thanked me yet his vaccine mandate is what’s kicking me out,” Loesch said.
As of September 2022, there are 2,632 unvaccinated members of the US Coast Guard, US Marine Corps has 8,913 unvaxxed, followed by the Air Force with 3,955, then the Navy, 2,623,
The branch with the fewest unvaccinated members is the US Army with 1,337.
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