KERR COUNTY, Texas – Amid the devastating Hill Country floods, one U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer is being recognized for his bravery.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Scott Ruskan, 26, was credited with saving 169 people from the floods on the morning of July 4 in Kerr County, including girls from Camp Mystic.
It was his first mission as a rescue swimmer.
Ruskan enlisted in the Coast Guard, graduating from rescue swimming school six months ago, after leaving his prior job as an accountant.
Early Friday morning, Ruskan received a call to join Texas Task Force 1, one of the 28 urban search and rescue teams under the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The team left Corpus Christi just around 7 a.m. Friday, Ruskan said it encountered some of the worst flying it had seen.
What should have been an hour-long flight, Ruskan said, became a seven- or eight-hour flight.
According to a social media post by the Coast Guard, Ruskan led triage coordination for most of the operation.
In an interview with Good Morning America, Ruskan said that the team decided to leave him on the ground to free up space for victims in the helicopters.
Once Ruskan arrived on the scene, he realized he was the only first responder on scene.
The rescue swimmer helped calm nearly 200 girls and determine the order in which they were airlifted from the campsite.
“They don’t really know what my experience is, or my rank or my age,” Ruskan said to GMA. “They just know, ‘Hey, this guy is a professional. He’s here to help us,’ and I had to live up to that standard.”
While Ruskan is being heralded as a hero by some, he’s not comfortable taking the spotlight alone.
He said he couldn’t have done it without aircraft commander Ian Hopper, co-pilot Blair Gujafor and flight mechanic Seth Reece.
“Any of the rescue swimmers in the Coast Guard would have done the exact same – if not better – than me," Ruskan said.
Even still, Ruskan says the ones that should be commended for their bravery are the very ones he helped save.
“The real heroes were the kids on the ground,” Ruskan said. “They were staying strong, and that helped inspire me to help them out.”
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