‘American Hero’ Emerges After Saving 165 Lives During Tragic Texas Flooding

A new enlistee with the U.S. Coast Guard is being hailed as an “American hero” after saving the lives of 165 victims during last weekend’s deadly flooding across central Texas.

Scott Ruskan, 26, had just left New Jersey on his first tour of duty with the Coast Guard when the Guadalupe River swelled far beyond its banks, rising from 3 feet to 34 feet in just 90 minutes and overwhelming a small Christian girls camp in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Despite the heroic recounting of his actions, Ruskan said he is just happy to have fulfilled part of the mission he enlisted to carry out every day.

“This is what it’s all about, right? Like, this is why we do the job,” he said in an interview from his post in central Texas.

Petty Officer Ruskan was in charge of triaging the damage to Camp Mystic, a sleep-away camp for Christian youth just outside San Antonio. At least 27 of its participants have died, including a pair of young sisters found clinging to one another after first responders located their bodies.

Ten campers and one counselor are still unaccounted for, according to public safety officials.

“This is why we take those risks all time. This is why like Coast Guard men and women are risking their lives every day,” Ruskan explained.

Raised in Oxford, NJ, Ruskan enrolled in the Coast Guard in 2021. He completed basic training before finishing an Aviation survival technician school in Petaluma, California, and eventually found himself stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Since November, Ruskan had been continuously on call, familiarizing himself with the Coast Guard’s fleet of MH-65 helicopters and taking additional swim training classes ahead of Texas’ notoriously dangerous flood season.

The call to action came on the Fourth of July when the state’s Task Force 1 contacted the Texas National Guard seeking additional personnel for search and rescue missions over central Texas.

“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.

By 7 a.m. Saturday morning, the Guard was part of a squadron that included Black Hawk and MH-65 helicopters flying over the site of Camp Mystic.

It was “literally the best aircrew we could possibly have,” Ruskan told the NY Post.

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Appearing on “Good Morning America” on Monday, Ruskan expanded on the harrowing rescue missions he conducted one after another.

“We encountered some of the worst flying we’ve ever dealt with. What should’ve been an hour flight probably took us about seven or eight, just to get into the landing zone. Once we made about four different approaches trying to get in, we were able to get boots on the ground with the Air National Guard, Department of Public Safety for Texas, game wardens,” he said, calling Camp Mystic the “main triage site” targeted for rescues.

“I got on scene, boots on the ground in Camp Mystic. Kind of discovered that 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, so I needed to triage them, get them to a higher level of care, and get them off the flood zone.”

In between bringing “cold, wet and miserable” kids back to the base of operations, Ruskan said he directed additional Black Hawk and MH-65 choppers out to rescue sporadic pockets of survivors who popped up during aerial views of the flood zone.

“My main job was triaging, and then my second job I kind of picked up was just trying to comfort these kids and the family members and counselors,” Ruskan said.

“I mean this is like probably the worst day of their life. They’re in a terrible situation, they have friends and family unaccounted for, missing, unknown status, and they’re looking to me and all the rescuers for guidance and comfort.”