“So others may live.” The rescue swimmer motto is simple, but for AST2 Scott Ruskan, it resonated.
For AST2 Scott Ruskan, a 26-year-old from Oxford, New Jersey, those words became reality on his very first mission–helping save 165 people during the July 4 floods in Texas.
“Everyone joins the military for different reasons,” Ruskan said. “But for rescue swimmers, that’s what we do. Rescue swimmer school is tough for a reason–when push comes to shove, can you stay calm and strong so others may live?”
Ruskan grew up at the Jersey Shore, where he spent six summers as a lifeguard. After college, he was working as an accountant in New York City when he realized office life wasn’t for him.
“It wasn’t my speed,” he said. “I wanted something active, hands-on, and near the water. The Coast Guard checked all the boxes–and the only job I wanted was rescue swimmer.”
Even though he didn’t have the collegiate swimming background many of his peers did, Ruskan pushed himself through the grueling training. Last November, he became a fully-trained rescue swimmer. His first mission came on July 4.
That morning, Task Force One near San Antonio called for help as severe flooding threatened hundreds at Camp Mystic, a summer camp in the Texas Hill Country. From Coast Guard Station Corpus Christi, Ruskan’s crew launched into storms that repeatedly forced them to land and regroup.
“It took us seven hours to get there,” Ruskan said. “The weather was brutal. We’d see a break in the radar, try to punch in, then get pushed back. But our pilots just kept finding ways to push forward.“
When they arrived, the scene was chaotic. Helicopters from the Air National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety were already working. When his crew reached Camp Mystic, they made a call: Ruskan would stay on the ground. As both a rescue swimmer and EMT, he could triage and comfort campers while freeing space on the helicopter for evacuees.
The scene was overwhelming. Many of the girls were barefoot, still in pajamas, clutching stuffed animals. Their feet were cut on rocks as they tried to escape the rising water.
“I just did my best to make them feel safe,” Ruskan said. He organized campers into safe zones, assessed injuries, and worked with Army National Guard helicopters to lift them out.
Meanwhile, his crew flew to an isolated area and saved 15 people stranded with no other way out. “That was true lives saved,” Ruskan emphasized. “Without them, those people wouldn’t have made it.”
By the end of the mission, Ruskan was credited with assisting 165 lives.
Since the rescue, Ruskan has been interviewed on national television and meritoriously promoted to Petty Officer Second Class by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Still, he deflects the spotlight.
“I’m just a dude who’s stoked to represent the Coast Guard,” he said. “The media attention has been a whirlwind, but at the end of the day, I was just doing my job–and it was a team effort.”
He says he plans to stay in the service as long as the work feels meaningful.
“I told myself I’d do this until it wasn’t fun anymore. It’s still fun. I love my job, I love the people I work with. And if someone’s in danger, they don’t care how experienced you are–they just want to know the Coast Guard is coming to get them. And we will–so others may live.”
