Belleville man pulls boy and father from Gulf of Mexico but father doesn’t survive

Mike Groton of Belleville has vacationed in Orange Beach, Alabama, all of his life.

He first went to the beach there with his parents and now travels there to enjoy the white sands of the Gulf of Mexico with his wife and 6-year-old daughter.

On his most recent trip, the tranquil scenes turned “a total 180.”

At around 5 p.m. on June 20, Groton said he rescued a boy and his father who were apparently caught in a rip current about 40 yards from shore. The child survived but the father didn’t. He was later identified as Van Hung Pham, 47, of Texas.

Pham’s death in Orange Beach was one of 10 drownings in a two-week period in June near the Alabama/Florida border with most of them linked to rip currents, according to local authorities and The Associated Press. Former NFL quarterback Ryan Mallett drowned on June 27 in Destin, Florida, but officials said there were not rip currents in the area where Mallett died. An 11th person is still missing after last being seen in the waters along Gulf Shores, Alabama.

The AP describes a rip current as a “powerful, narrow channel of water flowing away from the beach and often extending through the breaker zone where waves form.” As of June 25, rip currents have been linked to 55 deaths across the country and in Puerto Rico this year, according to the National Weather Service.

Beach rescue in Alabama

On June 20, the Groton family was strolling on the beach collecting seashells when Groton noticed a boy and a man in the distance out on the water.

At first he thought they were having fun swimming but then he noticed a woman on the beach who wanted the boy and man to come back.

“I asked if they’re alright,” he said. “She just said that she wanted them to come back.”

“I swam out there,” Groton said. “I noticed the boy was kind of distressed. He was on a boogie board, luckily. My priority was him.”

After getting the boy, who was about 10 years old, to a sandbar, Groton said he returned to the water to check on the man. When he had picked up the boy, the man was swimming.

By the time he reached Pham, he was floating on his back.

Groton, a truck driver who served five years in the Marines and completed the annual swimming qualifications required by the Marine Corps, thought the man was resting but when he asked if he was OK, the man was “unresponsive.”

He realized “things were bad” so he grabbed the man and began swimming back to the beach.

Groton, 35, said he could feel pressure from the current pulling them away from the beach.

“I know when I was getting the guy in, I wasn’t sure if I was actually getting anywhere,” he said.

“I felt it trying to pull us out,” he said of the current.

As Groton got closer to the beach, another man swam into the water to help. A third man standing in waist-deep water then joined to bring Pham onto the beach.

Groton said others gathered on the beach began performing chest compressions. First-responders soon arrived.

Baldwin County, Alabama, Coroner Brian Pierce said Pham was taken to an emergency room and pronounced deceased at 6:40 p.m. on June 20. His funeral service was held Saturday in Dallas.

Orange Beach Assistant Police Chief Robert Howard said the incident report stated bystanders had pulled Pham from the water and were performing CPR when officers arrived.

Pierce said an autopsy was performed and that the preliminary cause of death for Pham was drowning. His death has been ruled an accident.

Groton said everything happened so quickly and he is saddened for the Phams.

“I just feel so bad for the family,” he said.

Rip current safety tips

Brett Lesinger, chief of the Beach Safety Division for Orange Beach, urges tourists and local residents to monitor the beach safety reports issued each morning by area authorities.

“People are coming to the beach to have a good time and enjoy the beautiful water and sand,” Lesinger said. “But naturally, the beach does have certain dangers that come with it.”

Public beaches typically display warning flags to inform visitors of conditions:

• A purple flag means dangerous marine life is present

• Green flags mean conditions are calm and visitors should exercise basic caution.

• Yellow flags signal moderate surf and/or currents.

• Red flags alert beach goers to high hazards including high surf and strong currents.

• Double red flags signals the public to stay out of the water.

The safety message on June 20 said Orange Beach was under a “single red flag,” which means there is a “high hazard with high surf and/or strong currents.”

Lesinger said there were no lifeguards working in the area where Groton brought Pham to shore.

Dan Netemeyer, the Deputy Police Chief in Gulf Shores, Alabama, where one person drowned on June 22 and another swimmer went missing on June 17, said he urges people to swim where there are lifeguards on duty.

Netemeyer, who grew up in Mascoutah and later lived in Belleville when he served with the FBI, said the public safety agencies in the Alabama and Florida beach areas have lifeguards on duty, but noted they “can’t be everywhere.”

Netemeyer said beach goers need to be aware of the dangers of rip currents.

“There’s just no fighting them,” he said. “It’s serious.”

Here are tips from the federal government and public safety officials if you caught in a rip current:

• Stay calm and assess your conditions.

• Do not fight against the current by trying to swim back toward the shore. You will quickly become exhausted.

• Instead, float, tread water and swim parallel to the shore either left or right. Eventually, you will escape the current.

• If you are unable to swim parallel to the shore, wave and call for lifeguard support.

You can help someone caught in a rip current by:

• If you see someone in trouble, get help from a lifeguard.

• If no lifeguard is available, have someone call 9-1-1.

• Throw the rip current victim something that floats – a lifejacket, a cooler, a ball.

• Yell instructions on how to escape.

Lesinger said people who try to rescue others caught in a rip current are oftentimes the person who ends up being injured or drowning.

“It’s a very brave and courageous thing to go into the water and try to rescue a life for somebody that you may or may not know,” he said.

On the other hand, he said he “discourages” untrained people from going into the water to try to save someone.

“We want people to come on vacation and we want them to be able to go back wherever they came from and part of that is just making sure they try and stay within their own boundaries.”