07/09/2025
26-year-old Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Scott Ruskan was on his first official mission when he was called to Central Texas to respond to deadly flooding.
Ruskan was sent to Camp Mystic where he helped guide groups of 10-15 campers and adults to safer landing zones. All in all, he rescued 165 people from the camp.
In an interview with Good Morning America, Ruskan recounted the rescue saying “I kind of discovered I was the only person there as far as first responders go. So I had about 200, kids mostly. All scared, terrified, cold, having probably the worst day of their life. And I just kind of needed to triage them, get them to a higher level of care and get ‘em off the flood zone.”
Ruskan had completed his rescue swimming training only 6 months prior to this week’s mission and said that the real heroes “were the kids on the ground” adding that “those guys are heroic, and they were dealing with some of the worst times of their lives, and they were staying strong. That helped inspire me to get in there and help them out.”
