"Words just couldn't be said.Back when I was still a rookie that was not armored with Plasma technology, I had a hard time comprehending how the Hero training area worked. "There were some tears for all three of us," Feeney said.
"I didn't realize how quickly the feeling in my legs went away," Feeney said.ĭespite Feeney's repeated pleas for Archambeault to leave him and paddle to shore for his own safety, Archambeault attached a tow rope to Feeney's kayak, paddling to shore with Feeney drpaed over the craft.Īfter Feeney was treated for hypothermia at the hospital, the first people he asked to see were Koplan and Archambeault. But, in the 30 seconds it took for Archambeault to reach his friend, Feeney had lost most of his strength in the icy water. Soon, Archambeault said they were amid 3- to 4-foot swells.įeeney had paddled out farther than Archambeault and Koplan, and found himself in a rip current where he was hit by large waves from two different angles, capsizing his kayak.Īlthough Feeney was wearing a life jacket, he had no other survival gear to protect him from the 38-degree water.Īrchambeault paddled over to Feeney to help his friend get back in the kayak.
Once in Plymouth Bay, the trio noticed the wind and waves picking up significantly. "What friend wouldn't do the exact same thing for another friend?"Īrchambeault, 33, said he, Feeney and friend Julie Koplan of Plymouth decided to take advantage of an unusually warm day on March 3 to kayak to Plymouth Beach to watch the annual "Polar Plunge." "Not to sound stereotypical but it was something I'd do no matter what," Archambeault said. Although Trooper Jeffrey Archambeault isn't comfortable with being called a hero, the man he saved from drowning said it's a label the Bourne native will just have to live with.Īrchambeault, a 1991 graduate of Bourne High School currently assigned to the Massachusetts State Police Mounted Unit in Bourne, received the Massachusetts State Police Medal of Lifesaving last week for rescuing Plymouth resident Robert Feeney while on a kayaking trip in March.
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