(Editor’s Note: The following is a series on the men and women who have spent their summers protecting all those who came to Ocean City for fun and safe vacation.)
OCEAN CITY — Many of the guards who have been on the Ocean City Beach Patrol joined it as a summer job in between semesters at school. Most have found it to be a great experience that gave them their very first taste of real responsibility, which shaped their lives. And at some point, “real life” and regular jobs would pull them away from the beach.
Chris Hare was an exception.
After graduating Parkville High School in 1983, Hare had no intention of heading to Ocean City. Instead, he enlisted. Trained as a United States Air Force combat loadmaster, he flew on C-130s for the Maryland Air National Guard where he “performed both airdrops and in flight functions as an aircrew loadmaster on the Hercules.”
For nearly 10 years, Hare flew into “over 20 countries and received 8 military ribbons and 3 military metals, including the USAF Humanitarian Relief MEDAL for flying humanitarian relief missions in the Caribbean after Hurricane Hugo in 1989.”
That would be his story, until he “met an OCBP crew chief who was also attending Towson University,” who told him about summers guarding in Ocean City. He convinced Hare that, given his athletic abilities, he should go ahead and try out for the patrol.
Ready for the challenge, Hare headed to the beach and “in early summer 1986, I tried out for the OCBP and made the team. I had to commute back and forth from Baltimore for some weekends and a few week days.”
Hare was now working two very demanding jobs at once.
Hare would spend the next two summers guarding the north end of the Boardwalk. It was an area known for its crowds, dangerous conditions and legendary rescues.
“Back in the day, the 27th Street jetty was exposed for lack of sand. It became extremely dangerous when the jetty was covered with water during high tide and was not visible,” he recalled.
Hare would pull countless people away from this underwater hazard which became even more treacherous during strong surf and rough conditions.
But one rescue that always stands out in his mind, was a bit more humorous.
“I had just finished bringing back a drink to the guard on 28th Street. He had been blowing the whistle and signaling to a woman who was being pulled into the open Atlantic Ocean from a powerful eastbound wind,” Hare said. “When it was obvious she wasn’t moving in, I went out to make the pull. I swam extremely far out to make the pull, only to realize she wasn’t coming in because she was too afraid of a school of black porpoises swimming around her. I brought her in safely and at the end of the rescue, I was given a standing ovation by the beach crowd.”
Working two demanding jobs at once was tough, but Hare was up for the challenge. Of his days on the beach, protecting the lives of the people who trusted him to be there, Hare firmly believed that “the OCBP meant I was part of an elite team of water rescuers with a long history in Ocean City.”
Hare currently lives in Harford County, Md. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in business from Towson, and went on to earn his MBA in finance from Loyola University in Baltimore. He now works as a mortgage banker.