They Saved Strangers From the Water. Now These EMPD2 Students Are Learning to Save Lives in a Different Way.

Two enlisted servicemembers who made split-second decisions during dramatic water rescues are taking what they learned in the field to the next chapter of their military careers - becoming doctors.

September 3, 2026 by Hadiyah Brendel

Navy Diver 1st Class Travis Jones and Coast Guard Avionics Electrical Technician 2nd Class Kyle Trotta each saved lives in high-stakes water rescues before joining the newest Enlisted to Medical Degree Preparatory Program (EMDP2) cohort at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU). Now the two enlisted service members are bringing that same precision-under-pressure from the field to the classroom, on a path to becoming military physicians.

Managed in partnership with George Mason University, EMDP2 is an intensive two-year post-baccalaureate pipeline that bridges enlisted service and medical school. Each member brings a distinct background, and Jones' and Trotta's stories show a single mission: turning proven operational leaders into the next generation of military physicians.

Sweeping the Cold and Murky Water: Travis Jones

In May 2019, then-Navy Diver 3rd (ND3) Class Travis Jones was stationed at a submarine maintenance facility in Kings Bay, Georgia. During continuum training in Seattle, Washington, with classmate ND3 William Trainer, lost airline luggage reshaped their day.

The airline could not deliver the bags to base, so the pair set out to retrieve them. Rerouted around Puget Sound after missing a ferry, they watched a vehicle veer off the road, strike a light pole, and go over a berm.

They followed the car off the road to check on the driver, and what they found sent them into the water. "On the backside of that berm is a retention pond," Jones recalled. "We see the vehicle as it just leaves the surface into the retention pond."

In shorts and t-shirts, Jones and Trainer emptied their pockets, sprinted 50 yards, and swam 15 yards into the cold, 10-foot-deep pond. Finding the driver's side door warped shut, Jones swam across the roof, located the locked passenger door by touch, and gripped the luggage crossbars. Underwater, he struck the glass with knees, kicks, and elbows until it shattered.

Reaching inside, Jones felt the silhouette of an unconscious driver. His first instinct, the seat belt buckle, worked, and he pulled the person through the window and to shore with Trainer using a buddy-tow, a two-swimmer rescue carry.

Behind them in traffic were two off-duty nurses, still in scrubs from their shift. The nurses took over patient care on the shoreline, freeing the divers to return to the water and sweep the submerged cabin for anyone else. "They were in the right place at the right time," Jones said, referring to the nurses. The divers rotated back in to help until emergency medical services arrived.

The responding Tacoma Fire Department battalion chief later formally commended Jones's military command, writing that the victim had "virtually no chance of survival" without the divers' intervention.

Growing up in McKinney, Texas, as the son of a 30-year veteran firefighter, service came naturally to Jones. His pursuit of medicine took root about six years ago in the Navy diving community, where small teams act as their own first responders for emergencies. Stationed later at Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1 in Hawaii, working in remote austere environments, far from medical support, sharpened that ambition.

His shift toward medical school came around 2020 during a trauma training course, when an instructor with prior operational experience asked why he hadn't considered EMDP2.

"I was looking at getting out and using my GI Bill to finish my undergrad so I could start applying to medical schools, since that was where the fervor was," Jones said. "One of my instructors told me about this program and asked, 'Why are you not trying this?'"

After looking into it, Jones committed. "Okay, the journey starts now. We've set a target."

Navigating the Graveyard of the Atlantic: Kyle Trotta

Stationed at Coast Guard Station Oregon Inlet in Nags Head, North Carolina, waters known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," Trotta served as a non-rate crewmember, a junior enlisted sailor, aboard 47-foot motor lifeboats.

In May 2020, a 29-foot commercial fishing vessel carrying three adults and a child headed out for tuna season. Crossing the unpredictable inlet bar, the boat struck shallow shoals, shearing both outboard engines off the stern. Stripped of power, it drifted and began to flood.

With the crew's lives at risk and other boats in the area in danger, the station launched two 47-foot motor lifeboats. The two boats split the work. "One of the 47's primary goals was to get the boat into a tow so that we could get it going forward and get some of that water out," Trotta explained. "At the same time, the other 47's primary mission was to get the people off and try to get that boat dewatered as fast as possible."

Trotta's crew evacuated the occupants and transferred over a P6 dewatering pump, a portable pump that takes 10 to 15 minutes to assemble under pressure. Drawing on constant training, the team ran the multi-step setup and got the pump working.

For Trotta, the payoff was the moment itself. "In somebody's worst moment, to be there and do everything that you can to try to mitigate what is really just a terrible situation, it's just a great feeling," Trotta said.

Saving the vessel also preserved a family's livelihood, an impression that stayed with Trotta as he moved into Coast Guard aviation as an Avionics Electrical Technician on the MH-60 Jayhawk. Across more than eight years of service, his work on search-and-rescue missions and medical evacuations pointed him in a new direction.

He began shadowing his air station's flight surgeon, drawn toward a more hands-on role in operational medicine, and realized he wanted to move from working on aircraft systems to treating human ones.

"Aviation and the medical field share certain similarities," Trotta noted. "The aircraft, kind of like the human body, is a system of components. Being able to translate those skills of critical thinking and troubleshooting to the medical field is something that I think will serve me well."

From Operational Readiness to the Classroom

As they prepare for a demanding pre-med curriculum, Jones and Trotta plan to bring their operational focus to EMDP2. Trotta, only the third Coast Guard candidate selected in the program's history, values the joint-service mix. "To have a joint branch cohort is a really cool and unique opportunity," Trotta said. "Everybody brings their own unique contribution to the group."

Both hope their paths encourage other active-duty enlisted members to apply. Trotta stresses that candidates don't need a clinical background to compete, pointing to his own route from non-rate boat crewmember and aviation technician.

Jones, who was not selected in an earlier application cycle, says the key was simple: reset the target and keep moving. "Don't count yourself out. There's nothing special about me," Jones advised. He credits discipline over talent: "I just know how to set a target and be disciplined, and do the little bit that it requires every day."

His advice for a setback is practical. "Don't be discouraged with failure. Take your 24 hours to digest it, because we're humans, and then set a target and re-engage."

As they move toward medical school, both draw on the composure forged in dark water and breaking surf, preparing for a future commission as military physicians who carry real-world operational grit to the bedside.