24-year-old Coast Guard swimmer rescued 16 boat wreck survivors off Mexican coast

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Strapped into a harness, Josh Law was lowered from a U.S.

Key points

• "I was experiencing exhaustion at that point, " Law, 24, informed The Associated Press in his first interview since the rescue.
• The force of the helicopter blades pummeled the water, whipping up spray and turbulence.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Strapped into a harness, Josh Law was lowered from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter into the rough Pacific Ocean in the pitch black night, far off the Mexican coast.

Notably, the force of the helicopter blades pummeled the water, whipping up spray and turbulence. The Coast Guard rescue swimmer couldn't hear anything over the noise or see anything in the darkness. Waves of 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 meters) hit him.

All he could do was follow the searchlight from the helicopter with the hope it would lead him to the more than two dozen individuals flung into the cold waters some 140 miles (225 kilometers) off the coast of Mexico's Baja peninsula. He would personally rescue 16 of them.

"I was experiencing exhaustion at that point, " Law, 24, informed The Associated Press in his first interview since the rescue. "We had particularly little sleep. But what I was experiencing was nothing compared to what they were at that point. I just had to keep that in mind."

For now, 24-year-old Coast Guard swimmer rescued 16 boat wreck survivors off Mexican coast remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.