Always look for the helpers.
Scott Ruskan is a NYC finance bro who became a Coast Guard rescue swimmer and saved 165 people over the weekend.
Ruskan and his team flew in to help Camp Mystic, the girls' summer camp which saw the worst of the floods.
Since graduating in November, Ruskan has been busy doing additional training classes and getting to know the Coast Guard helicopters while being on call for the Guard. This was the first time he was called upon, and man did he deliver!
Normally, the Coast Guard would not be involved in an inland flood situation, but the Texas National Guard, overwhelmed by the disaster, called them in for assistance.
From the New York Post:
'That's a little bit outside our area of operation normally, but people were in danger, and we're a good asset to try and help people out, and these guys were asking for help, so that's kind of what we do,' Ruskan said.
The Coast Guard had to chopper the girls and staff out of the camp. More than 200 were stranded. Ruskan stayed on the ground to organize triage, deciding the order in which people needed to be rescued and airlifted out of the site.
While on the ground, Ruskan tended to terrified and injured campers, many of them shoeless and still wearing pajamas from their mad dash out of their bunks in the middle of the night.
In between comforting the 'cold, wet and miserable' survivors, both kids and adults, Ruskan directed Army Blackhawk 60s and MH-65s to pockets of survivors to begin painstakingly bringing them to safety ...
'So 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, but obviously it's still super sad,' he said. 'There's still a lot of people missing and unaccounted for, so the mission's not over yet. It's not over for us.'
Just imagine how much worse the situation may have been if Ruskan and his team weren't there.
When contacted by Texas reporter Jennie Taer, Ruskan said he's "just a dude."
And from The Post:
'This is what it's all about, right? Like, this is why we do the job,' said Scott Ruskan, 26, a New Jersey native and former KPMG accountant, to The Post after his work in central Texas.
'This is why we take those risks all time. This is why like Coast Guard men and women, are risking their lives every day,' said Petty Officer Ruskan.
Absolute American Heroes. 😤
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