Coast Guard plucks youth off breakwall

By DORIS COOK - Staff Writer
Star Beacon

June 06, 2008 03:46 am

— ASHTABULA —A walk on the breakwall from Walnut Beach for an 11-year-old Ashtabula boy ended early Thursday night with being rescued by an Ashtabula Harbor U.S. Coast Guard crew. The youngster was reported missing for more than an hour by his grandmother, who called the city police at 4:30 p.m.
Police immediately called in the Coast Guard to help search for the youth. It all had a happy ending.
“We got the call shortly after 4:30 p.m. and within 10 minutes we had our boat under way,” said Boatsman 3rd Class Cole Smith.
The youngster’s grandmother and mother declined at first to talk with a Star Beacon reporter. They waited inside the Coast Guard station office at the harbor until the rescue boat docked.
Three Ashtabula police officers, Sgt. Ronald Kaydo, Patrolmen Thomas Perry and Jason Irwin after getting the call took off walking from Walnut Beach on the huge rocks breakwall. Aboard the boat were Coxswain BM2 Bruce Czako, BM2 Kevin Morron, Machinery Technician 3rd Class Justin Bennett, and Seaman Anthony Marquette.
“The boy told us and the Coast Guard that he wanted to walk to the lighthouse. He almost made it. Officer Perry slipped into the water, but we got him out,” Kaydo said later.
Refusing to give her name, the grandmother said her grandson left to take a walk to Walnut Beach.
“He’s going to get grounded for a week from riding his bike,” she said. The mother repeated the same subtle punishment.
Kaydo questioned the family members before reuniting them with the boy. Perry, dripping wet from a dip in Lake Erie, and Irwin hitched rides back to their cruisers parked at the beach road.
“The Coast Guard crew did a good job. The boy apparently wanted to see if he could make it to the old lighthouse. He almost made it The boat crew picked us all up by the lighthouse platform section,” Kaydo said.