When he was 16, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk was rescued from the waters of Lake Michigan by sailors in a Coast Guard service boat. He floated in 42-degree water for about 28 minutes. He was suffering from hypothermia and was close to drowning that spring day.

"But for the Coast Guard, I would not be here," Kirk, a Chicago Republican, said Monday.

Kirk is now fighting to keep the Obama Administration from shutting down Coast Guard helicopter stations in Waukegan and Muskegon, Mich., across the lake from Milwaukee.

Click here to read the full story.