A Coast Guard rescue swimmer is being hailed as an “American hero” after his very first mission—saving 165 Texas flash flood victims.
“This is what it’s all about, right? This is why we do the job,” said Scott Ruskan, 26, a New Jersey native and former KPMG accountant, speaking to The Post about his efforts in central Texas.
“This is why we take those risks all the time. This is why Coast Guard men and women risk their lives every day,” said Petty Officer Ruskan, who managed triage at Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ summer camp hit hard by the flooding.
Raised in Oxford, NJ, Ruskan enlisted in the Coast Guard in 2021. After completing basic training, he attended Aviation Survival Technician School in Petaluma, California, before being stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas.
After completing all his training, Ruskan had been on call since November, familiarizing himself with the Coast Guard’s iconic MH-65 helicopter and taking additional rescue swimming classes while waiting to be deployed.
The call finally came on the Fourth of July, when a massive summer storm caused catastrophic flash flooding across Texas, resulting in at least 80 fatalities so far.
Bryan Winchell, a helicopter search and rescue technician with Texas Task Force 1—a collaboration between the Texas Army National Guard and Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service—reached out to the Coast Guard to request rapid emergency support both on the ground and in the air near central Texas.
“That’s a little outside our usual area of operation, but people were in danger, and we’re a valuable resource to help out. These guys were asking for help, so that’s what we do,” Ruskan explained.
Ruskan celebrating with his family after graduating from rescue swimmer school last year.
The rescues at Camp Mystic marked Ruskan’s first mission.
By 7 a.m. Friday, crews boarded Blackhawk 60 and Coast Guard MH-65 helicopters and took to the skies.
“It was literally the best aircrew we could have possibly asked for,” Ruskan said.
Their destination was Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ summer camp located just off the banks of the Guadalupe River, which experienced some of the worst flooding.
Officials confirmed the deaths of five campers, ages 8 and 9, while a counselor and 11 more girls remain missing
When the crew arrived, they were racing against sundown to rescue as many stranded flood victims as possible. With all roads impassable and currents too strong for boats, helicopter evacuation was the only option for nearly 200 survivors.
As they assessed the logistics, the team aimed to move as many people out of danger as they could, but helicopter weight limits posed a challenge. During a briefing, it was decided that Ruskan would remain on the ground to manage triage.
“I thought, sweet, sounds great—I’ll be more helpful on the ground than in the air right now, so that’s what we went with,” he said.
The rescuers loaded the first four to five survivors into the MH-65 helicopter, while Ruskan set out to inspect the camp more closely. Camp Mystic sat on higher ground, but the surrounding flood-ravaged areas showed snapped trees and twisted piles of cars scattered across the muddy terrain.
On the ground, Ruskan tended to frightened and injured campers—many shoeless and still in their pajamas after fleeing their bunks in the middle of the night.
Between comforting the “cold, wet, and miserable” survivors, both children and adults, Ruskan coordinated Army Blackhawk 60s and MH-65 helicopters, directing them to pockets of stranded people to begin evacuations.
Two girls being rescued from Texas floodwaters by helicopter.
“My main job was triaging, but I also took on comforting the kids, their family members, and counselors,” Ruskan said.
“This is probably the worst day of their lives. They’re in a terrible situation, with friends and family missing or unaccounted for, and they’re looking to me and the other rescuers for guidance and comfort.”
He added that one of the hardest moments was when crying adults came to him, desperate for help finding their missing loved ones.
A search crew working on the grounds of Camp Mystic on July 6, 2025.
A cabin at Camp Mystic destroyed by flooding.
“It was like, ‘Hey, I can’t help you find these people right now, but I can get you out of here if we all stay calm.’ I did my best to comfort everyone,” he said.
Over the next several hours, Ruskan led a high-risk rescue mission in extremely challenging conditions, ultimately bringing 165 people to safety.
“We managed to get the majority of people out of Camp Mystic, which is incredible. I feel like we did a lot of good that day, but it’s still really sad,” he said. “There are still many missing and unaccounted for, so the mission isn’t over—not for us.”
“We’re back home now, but there are still many crews out there—Coast Guard, Department of Public Safety, Air National Guard, Task Force 1, and other local agencies,” Ruskan said, eager to share credit for the rescue efforts with all involved.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem praised the successful rescue mission on social media, naming Ruskan an “American hero” whose “selfless courage embodies the spirit and mission of the Coast Guard.”
But Ruskan humbly shared the credit with his fellow guardsmen.
“Honestly, I’m just a regular guy doing my job. This is what I signed up for, and any Coast Guard rescue swimmer, pilot, flight mechanic—anyone—would have done the same thing in our situation,” he said.
“That’s what we were asked to do, and we did it. If anyone else had been on duty that day, they would have done the same. We just happened to be the crew that got the call.”
