By Trina A. San Agustin
Variety News Staff

THE U.S. Coast Guard, the Guam Police Department’s Marine Patrol, and the Guam Fire Department’s Search and Rescue teams continued their search for an airman who reportedly got swept over the reef at Tarague Beach on Saturday.
Coast Guard search and rescue specialist Lee Putnam said the Navy’s Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25, or HSC-25, the Navy’s P-3 Orien plane from Kadena Air Force Base in Japan, and Andersen Air Force Base’s 36th Civil Engineer Squadron fire rescue team continued their search at 8 a.m. on Sunday.
Putnam told Variety that they have exhausted two aircrews since the search began on Saturday.
The search for the airman is expected to continue through Sunday night.
The report of the man getting swept over the reef was made at 11:15 a.m. on Saturday. The Coast Guard responded to the report of “distressed swimmers” around 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.
The airman was with four others. One of them was taken to the Naval Regional Medical Center at Naval Hospital. His condition was unknown as of press time. The three other individuals were able to make it back to shore on their own.
The missing airman is from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota stationed on Guam, according to reports.
According to KFYR-TV Channel 5 in Minot, “The airmen were deployed to Andersen Air Base on Guam to support the war on terror. Nearly 200 deployed airmen from the Fifth Bomb Wing are slated to come home to Minot sometime this week.”
The report added that the men are attached to the Air and Space Expeditionary Force and they have been stationed here on Guam for about four months.
The airman’s name was not available as of press time and Andersen officials were not available for comment yesterday.