U.S. Coast Guard aviation technician Scott Ruskan helped saved over 200 lives in Hunt, Texas late … More
U.S. Homeland Security/
When Scott Ruskan received a phone call at the U.S. Coast Guard where he was stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas as an aviation survival technician late last week, he didn’t have to think twice.
Responding to historic flooding in the Hill Country of Central Texas – located just over 220 miles away – he rushed into action and jumped in a helicopter led by his crew, knowing that every minute on the ground could mean lives saved.
After a nearly eight-hour flight that overcame “some pretty serious weather,” as Ruskan explained to Good Morning America on July 7, the 26-year-old Ruskan eventually made his way to Hunt, Texas – just west of Kerrville – and landed, helping save over 200 lives that were trapped at Camp Mystic, the site of the deadly flooding that has so far killed over 100 lives in total.
Dropped into a flood site near the Guadalupe River that saw water rise 20 feet in the fateful hours of July 4, Ruskan met the moment on his first mission with the U.S. Coast Guard and was the first-responder on the ground, acting as a triage coordinator. “I had about 200 kids mostly. All scared, terrified, cold, having probably the worst day of their life,” he told GMA. “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’s action in a time of extreme crisis was exemplary and ultimately heroic, but it also wasn’t surprising, said Rider University Director of Track and Field Bob Hamer, because over his time as a track and field athlete at the New Jersey college, “he was always a team first guy.”
Before Scott Ruskan Was a Coast Guard Swimmer, He was An Athlete At Rider University
Four years earlier, in 2021, Ruskan graduated from Rider University, where he was a four-year member of the Broncs’ cross country and track and field programs and left with a degree in Business Administration.
Hamer said Ruskan often stepped into situations to help the team in a time of need. In 2018, for instance, Ruskan began running the 3,000 meter steeplechase, “even though he wasn’t that good,” Hamer said. “He took on an event that was gritty and challenging. He worked hard to get better at it.”
Then in 2021, Ruskan became the “glue guy” on the program’s 4×800, helping it win a Metro Atlantic Outdoor Track and Field title in 7:40.81. “He was a guy who would step up,” Hamer said. “That was important.”
Hamer said the Rider program had a slogan it lived by.
“Sometimes your best isn’t good enough. You have to do what’s required.”
While Ruskan wasn’t a track and field star during his time at Rider, he exemplified what it took to be a collegiate athlete every day. “When he got to Rider, he didn’t have a tremendous amount of impressive stats,” Hamer said. “But we thought he was a kid who had potential because he had an impressive amount of character.”
A day after Ruskan was flown out of Camp Mystic and his story of heroism started to spread, his sister posted on social media, explaining the situation. That’s how Hamer found out.
He texted Ruskan once he saw the news.
“I wrote to him, ‘I’m so proud of you,’” Hamer said. “He called me an hour later on a Sunday morning.”
Ruskan joined the U.S. Coast Guard shortly after his time finished at Rider. Hamer said that wasn’t surprising, either.
Ruskan always thought of others before himself.
“His overall character,” Hamer said. “He was just one of those guys. He understood what his role was and he was willing to do what the team needed. He didn’t seek attention. He was a guy who showed up, gave effort and when it came time to race, he knew when to contribute.”
An Important Intervention By Coast Guard Swimmer Scott Ruskan
Ruskan was praised for his work in Texas and thanked by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who described him as an “American hero.”
On the ground in Kerr County, Ruskan provided “medical assistance and aided in evacuating” a total of 230 flood victims, according to the U.S. Coast Guard’s press release.
In the days following the deadly flooding, hundreds of people have lost their lives including those in Kerr County, Travis County, Kendall County, Burnett County, Williamson County and Tom Green County.
The total death toll is over 100, and at least 160 are still missing in Texas.
Ruskan knows the situation continues to be dire. He wrote on Instagram that what transpired in those fateful hours on the ground in Hunt, Texas would have been incumbent on anyone, given the situation.
“I’m getting a lot of the attention for something I think was expected of me and what every [U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer] would do in my shoes. The real heroes are the crew who flew us into this and the crews still working the mission,” he wrote on Instagram.
Stories of compassion, however, are what will serve as reminders of the human spirit.
In the moments leading into an evacuation in Hunt, Texas, Ruskan was asked by a child if he could bring a stuffed animal on to the helicopter.
“He says, ‘Of course you can,’” Hamer relayed of the conversation he had with his former athlete. “That’s a guy who gets it. Whatever will give them comfort in a time of crisis and won’t affect the mission, he knew that was important.”
