Former Police Officer Becomes an Active Air Rescue Specialist After His Retirement From the Force

A hero is something that I think I strive for everyday. I don’t think I will ever reach that goal. I think the challenge is in reaching for it, not achieving it

The first episode in the second season of the AARP series Spinoffs features the very likable Dick Sine, a former Ohio police officer who took up a second career as an active air rescue specialist in Montana after he retired from the force. Sine, who was once the youngest police officer in Ohio, told AARP that he’d always wanted to be in emergency medicine and his retirement offered him the time to go to school to prepare for this physically and mentally challenging second career of rescuing people (and dogs) who are stranded on top of a mountain.

When you have to have a helicopter come pick you up off the top of a mountain you are not having a good day. We rescued a …16 year old boy and he had a dog with him and obviously you’re not gonna pick a 16 year old boy up and leave his dog in the woods to die. So I got that dog in my arms and we came up on the hook with that dog squirming. To know that you’re doing that for somebody and giving them a very real second chance at being alive that’s pretty rewarding.