By: Megan Roche

Scott Ruskan was on his very first rescue mission flight when he and his team responded to Texas Hill Country in the wake of the flash flooding of the Guadalupe River. 

Ruskan, who hails from Warren County, joined the Coast Guard in 2021. He completed a swiftwater rescue course just two months prior to the flooding event in Texas. 

He and his team at Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi boarded helicopters around 7 a.m. Once the group arrived in Kerrville via helicopter, they headed for Camp Mystic. The summer camp was hardest hit by the flooding events and left many dead, including an entire bunk of young girls. 

With the ground saturated, roads and bridges washed away, the only way out of the camp was via helicopter. Ruskan recognized that the best way to save as many of them as he could would be to remain on the ground at the camp so more campers could fit on the rescue helicopter. While on the ground, Ruskan jumped into a role of triage coordinator at the site and helped to comfort the campers. 

Ruskan and his team ultimately led 165 campers to safety. 

“When I saw the military, I was like ‘oh my goodness, this is God’s angels right here and they are going to get us out,” Callie, one of the campers saved by Ruskan, said. “I remember saying to my mom ‘they’re our heroes, they actually got us out.”

At the 2026 ESPY Awards, Ruskan was honored with The Pat Tillman Award for Service. 

The Pat Tillman Award for Service is one of the ESPYs’ highest honors, presented annually to an individual with a strong connection to sports who has demonstrated extraordinary service, leadership, and selflessness. The award is named after Pat Tillman, who left his NFL career with the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army following the Sept. 11 attacks. Tillman was killed while serving in Afghanistan in 2004, and the award recognizes those who embody his legacy of courage, sacrifice and commitment to others.

Beside Ruskan at the awards were his parents, girlfriend, and Callie, each of them watching with tears as he accepted the award. 

While he earned the recognition with the award, Ruskan shared that the rescue would not have happened without help from everyone in the community. 

“There was a lot of other agencies that day that were also doing the exact same risk and taking the exact same mission as us,” Ruskan said during his acceptance speech. “Once I did get on scene, I may have been alone on the ground, but air crews and helicopters from the Army’s Air National Guard also helped. I could not have done that mission without loading the kids onto Blackhawk helicopters with the rescue task force team swimmers there as well. It took a complete army of people to get this done, and of course still, our hearts go out to the 28 people that lost their lives that day and their families. I think about you guys all the time. If the stage behind me was big enough and we had enough tickets, there would be a hundred people standing behind me here today that saved lives, many of whom are working now in a current flood mission going on. I’m so incredibly honored today to accept this award on behalf of all of them.”