A man who spent the better part of his life rescuing people is finally turning in his boat.
At age 72, Hoover Lingle, who has been with the Rowan County Rescue Squad for 50 years and in search and rescue for 30, plans to sell his airboat.
“I’m not a spring chicken any more,” he said.
Lingle helped start the Rescue Squad in 1951 and is the only living member left from those early years.
Lingle retired from a job as a concrete contractor in 1962. He has worked for several law enforcement agencies and has served in the military.
Over the years, he has carried more than 12,000 people in his airboat, helped locate and rescue hundreds of people and pulled out 16 people who were drowning.
Lingle rescued five fishermen when their boat sank in the ocean out of the northern inlet at Carolina Beach. He made several trips to help with Hurricane Floyd relief and has helped with all the hurricanes along the East Coast in the past 35 years.
The walls of Lingle’s home are covered with awards. In 1993, he was named Man of the Year in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. In 1981, he claimed a world record for long distance travel in an airboat after a 710-mile, 312-day trip from Wilmington to Cocoa Beach, Fla. He also holds the record for traveling the Intercostal Waterway from Norfolk, Va., to north of Miami, Fla.
When he wasn’t rescuing people, Lingle did work in the community, such as letting boys ride in his boat at Boy Scout camp. In 1989, he made a dying boy’s wish come true when he gave an airboat ride to a 7-year-old Georgia boy who had leukemia.
Over the years, Lingle has owned eight airboats. He says he never charged anyone for his work.
After 50 years, Lingle will turn his hat in and spend his days working in the welding shop behind his house.
He will not discuss his reasons for leaving the Rescue Squad.
“I hate to do this, but this is the way it has to be,” he said. “I thank all the groups I have worked with.”
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