As the Guadalupe River rose in Kerr County, Texas, in the early hours of July 4, Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi received a call to help rescue hundreds of campers in the path of a devastating flash flood.
The four-person crew of Rescue 6553, an HC-65E Dolphin helicopter dispatched from the station, flew 150 miles through the dense storm, relying on instrumentation only for navigation. After attempting to reach the hardest-hit area three times — a harrowing flight that took nearly seven hours — the crew finally succeeded, opening up a lifeline for hundreds of people, including many children, to escape the rushing water.
On Friday, the crew members received two of the highest honors for aviation heroism, with two receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross and two given the Air Medal.
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“In the face of devastating floods in Texas, this Coast Guard aircrew’s courageous actions saved lives and reaffirmed our vital role in protecting American communities,” Adm. Kevin Lunday, the Coast Guard’s acting commandant, said in a statement released Saturday.
According to the service, the crew finally “punched through, using their weather radar capabilities” and led Army helicopters to reach stranded campers, including young girls and counselors from Camp Mystic, the Christian summer retreat where at least 27 died.
Pilot Lt. Ian Hopper, co-pilot Lt. Blair Ogujiofor, Aviation Survival Technician 3rd Class Scott Ruskan and Aviation Maintenance Technician 3rd Class Seth Reeves worked tirelessly to gather survivors and ferry them to safety, with Ruskan, in his first major operation as a Coast Guard member, staying on the ground to coordinate the evacuation of 165 people.
The crew directly rescued 18, according to the service.
“I had a job to do,” Ruskan, 26, told The New York Times on July 6. “All these people are looking at you terrified with a 1,000-yard stare. They want some sort of comfort, someone to save them.”
For their efforts, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem presented the Distinguished Flying Cross to Hopper and Ruskan and Air Medals to Ogujiofor and Reeves.
“This is what the men and women of the Coast Guard do,” Noem said in a news release Saturday. “The selfless courage of this crew embodies the spirit and mission of the U.S. Coast Guard.”
At least 132 people died in the July 4 flash flood and as many as 160 are still missing. Officials said Monday that it may take weeks to complete recovery operations.
Noem has faced criticism as a result of the flood response in regard to the cancellation of contracts that laid off call center workers for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. According to The New York Times, nearly 100% of calls to FEMA were answered on July 5, but on the following two days, after the contracts lapsed, that response fell to 35.8% on July 6 and 15.9% on July 7.
Noem renewed the contracts on July 10.
The Coast Guard has seen a surge this year in operations, increasing its presence near the southwest U.S. border to take part in migrant interdiction operations and serving alongside the U.S. Navy to increase patrols in the Gulf of Mexico and Western Pacific.
It is undergoing a force transformation that, according to Noem, will increase the size of the service by more than 15,000 members, and received nearly $25 billion in the Trump administration’s recently passed spending bill that will go toward buying new ships and aircraft as well as repairing and maintaining shore infrastructure.
The law included $2.3 billion for 40 MH-60 helicopters, which the service intends to transition to completely by the 2040s.
The Coast Guard had intended to decommission its MH-65 Dolphin helicopter fleet, in use since 1984, replacing it with the MH-60 Jayhawk, largely because the platforms had reached the end of their service lives and parts were no longer available.
But in the past five years, the service embarked on a service-life extension program to keep the MH-65 Dolphins running, enabling the helicopters to operate for 30,000 flight hours rather than the original 20,000.
Rescue 6553 was delivered to Air Station Corpus Christi in February 2024 after undergoing service life extension upgrades.
The helicopters aren’t large: Ruskan decided to stay on the ground and coordinate the rescues of campers because it freed up extra space in the crew’s helicopter, he told The New York Times.
“Our crew’s efforts in this response alongside our state and local partners were heroic,” Lt. Cmdr. Rachel Ault, Coast Guard Heartland District’s public affairs officer, said in a statement. “As America’s first responders, our crews will always be ready to help those in need.”
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