In Part 1: two fishing boats and their Coast Guard rescuers face the same fate exactly 30 years apart in the deadly waters of the Graveyard of the Pacific; a team of Green Berets confront a gut-wrenching moral dilemma and a rescue under fire in the burning sands of Desert Storm; and a High Angle Rescue Team tries to save a young boy trapped on the rocky cliffs of Oregon.
In Part 2: a team of Navy Seals rescue an injured civilian mariner thousands of miles from the nearest hospital in the vast Pacific Ocean; and Mountain Rescue Aspen tries to save a badly injured climber from the slopes of a peak in Colorado.
In Part 3: rescue personnel are tested as never before during 1993's Storm of the Century; the Coast Guard's first female rescue swimmer must save a badly injured pilot in the waters off the Pacific Northwest; and the U.S. Navy and Air Force join forces to rescue a downed pilot from the jungles of Laos.
In Part 4: a scientist has a life threatening disease; a shipwrecked mariner is saved during the longest aerial search and rescue operation ever performed; and Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces respond to the most destructive terrorist attack in U.S. history.