Petty Officer 3rd Class Ashley Climaldi has saved three lives, including a 3-year-old girl. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class NyxoLyno Cangemi

By Petty Officer 1st Class NyxoLyno Cangemi

CAPE MAY — While members of the nation's fifth armed service are all trained as first responders, Petty Officer 3rd Class Ashley Climaldi has utilized her skills to save the lives of others both on duty and off.

Philadelphia native, Climaldi is stationed at Coast Guard Stations Cape May and Townsend Inlet where her role as an emergency medical technician has afforded her the skills necessary to save the lives of five people, including a 3-year-old girl.

On June 19, 2007, Climaldi was a member of a rescue boat crew responding to a report of a capsized boat in Ingram Thorofare. The boat crew arrived on scene, and Climaldi assisted in pulling three people from the water.

Later that same day, the rescue crew went to a nearby, seaside restaurant to eat lunch, and Climaldi put her training to use once again in order to save a 3-year-old girl’s life.

"While we were eating, there was a family behind us," Climaldi said. "They seemed real happy. They had a little girl with them, and she was putting makeup on her grandmother. She was so cute.

"We continued eating and the girl started choking on something. The grandmother was patting her on the back, and then the girl stopped coughing. It was scary to see a little girl, a little tiny person, not breathing. I rushed over to her, and I didn't want to be mean, but I pushed the grandmother out of the way.

“I lifted the girl's arms up in the air and jerked her up about three times and the piece of food just came out. I didn't even have to get that far into the Heimlich maneuver. Once she started breathing again she started to cry. Everyone in the restaurant, including the family, was just staring at me.

“The entire place was just silent. After a few minutes the little girl ran up to me and started hugging me. It was like she knew. Then she went back to eating her chicken fingers," Climaldi stated.

A few days later, the station crew responded to a report of a drowning victim at Avalon Pointe Marina in Avalon Manor. When the rescue crew arrived, they discovered a man face down in the water near his boat.

"When we got there, the guy was in between the boat's transom and the engine," Climaldi said.

"He had a pulse but he wasn't breathing. I could tell he had drowned. He was completely blue in color, and his hands were white. I could tell he hadn't had oxygen in a long time. Another crew member and I pulled the man out of the water and placed him on the deck of the boat.

“It was probably the jolt of being moved, but he started to spit up water. After that, he started to breathe shallow breaths, and all I could think to myself was, 'Come on, just keep breathing.'” She stated.

“After a while, he started to cough up a lot of water, his breathing got better and the color started to return to his face. When he started talking he didn't make much sense and he kept trying to fight everyone because he had been without oxygen for so long. He kept calling everyone Mom - he called me Patty. He was totally delirious, but I was just happy he was screaming because it meant he was breathing."

It was later learned the man Climaldi helped rescue that day was a captain in the Camden (N.J.) Police Department and because of Climaldi's actions, he was able to make a full recovery without any brain damage.

Nearly nine months later on March 1, Climaldi found herself in yet another situation where her skills as an EMT would save the life of an elderly gentleman when the man began to choke on a piece of food while she was dining at a restaurant in her hometown of Philadelphia.

While others in the restaurant remained motionless and shocked, Climaldi once again came to the aid of another and successfully performed the Heimlich maneuver. The food was dislodged, and the man made a full recovery.

"Petty Officer Climaldi is one of those people who would run into a burning building to save someone," said Lt. Mark Pesnell, officer in charge of Coast Guard Station Cape May. "She has the ability to think clearly in times of intense stress."

Climaldi says saving lives is just a part of her job, but her advanced training as an EMT was an opportunity that didn't come quickly or easy.

"From the first day I joined the Coast Guard, I wanted to take advantage of the EMT program. It costs a lot of money to send someone to the school, so for the first year I was here, I begged my chain of command to let me go to school. They didn't let me go right away, and now I understand why they didn't - I had a lot of other things I needed to complete first, like becoming boat crew qualified. After about a year, when I had everything completed, I asked again, and they let me go to EMT school."

Since her time in the Coast Guard, Climaldi has responded to 11 search and rescue cases, saving a total of five lives and assisting 24 others.

Climaldi was named the Coast Guard Member of the Year in 2007 by the USO of Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey, and her accomplishments have earned her a commendation medal by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Like Idawalley Zorada Lewis, a lighthouse keeper credited with saving 18 lives, Climaldi's lifesaving actions exemplify the Coast Guard's core values of honor, respect and devotion to duty.