On his very first mission, 26-year-old Coast Guard rescue swimmer Scott Ruskan helped save 165 lives from raging floodwaters in Texas, and he’s already being called an “American hero.”
But if you ask him?
“Honestly, I’m mostly just a dude. I’m just doing a job,” Ruskan said humbly. “This is what I signed up for.”
Ruskan, a New Jersey native and former accountant, had only been on call since November. But on July 4th, he got the call, one that would put all his training, and his heart, to the test.
A monstrous summer rainstorm had triggered catastrophic flash floods across central Texas, with Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ summer camp near the Guadalupe River, hit especially hard. All roads were impassable, boats couldn’t get in, and helicopters were the only hope.
“That’s a little bit outside our area of operation normally,” Ruskan said, “but people were in danger… so that’s kind of what we do.”
By 7 a.m. Friday, Ruskan and his team were soaring through the sky in a Coast Guard MH-65 and a Blackhawk 60, headed toward the camp. “It was literally the best aircrew we could possibly have,” he recalled.
With limited space in the aircrafts, the team made a decision: Ruskan would stay on the ground to lead triage.
“I was like, sweet, sounds great,” he said. “I’ll be more helpful on the ground.”
Surrounded by terrified campers, many barefoot, still in pajamas, cold, wet, and shivering, Ruskan offered more than just logistics.
“My main job was triaging, and then my second job… was just trying to comfort these kids and the family members and counselors,” he said. “They’re in a terrible situation… and they’re looking to me and all the rescuers for guidance and comfort.”
Ruskan helped direct choppers to stranded survivors and calmed panicked adults searching for loved ones.
“It’s like, ‘Hey, I can’t help you guys locate these people, but I can get you out of here right now if we just try to remain calm.’”
In the end, Ruskan and the team safely evacuated nearly everyone at the camp, 165 people in total.
“We basically got the majority of the people out of Camp Mystic, which is awesome. And I feel like we did a lot of good that day,” he said. “But obviously it’s still super sad… the mission’s not over yet.”
The rescue effort continues with help from the Coast Guard, the Department of Public Safety, the Air National Guard, and Texas Task Force 1.
“This is why we do the job,” he said. “This is why Coast Guard men and women are risking their lives every day. Any one of us would’ve done the same thing. We just happened to be the crew that got the case.”
From rescue swimmer school in Petaluma, California, to this moment of bravery in Texas, Ruskan’s journey is just getting started.
And we think he’s more than just a dude.
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