Soldier helps save drowning men
Cottonwood Falls man nominated for Soldier's Medal for heroism
By Joey Berlin
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Two months after Pfc. Derek Mosby and two friends sprang into action to save five people from drowning, Mosby still can’t understand the people who, instead of helping out, decided to become spectators — let alone those who decided videotaping the incident was preferable to saving lives.
“I don’t know what human being can just sit back and watch another one drown,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”
Mosby, a Cottonwood Falls reservist who drills at Emporia’s U.S. Army Reserve Center, and his friends were able to save four Indian foreign exchange students in the Oct. 8 incident at Turner Falls Recreation Area outside Davis, Okla. The body of the fifth student was later recovered by an Oklahoma Highway Patrol dive team, according to the Davis Police Department incident report.
The bravery Mosby exhibited has earned him a recommendation for the Soldier’s Medal, the seventh-highest honor a soldier can receive. The medal is given for voluntary risk of life in situations other than conflict with an opposing armed force.
On Oct. 8, Mosby and his friend Nathan George were visiting another friend of Mosby’s, Airman Chris Harlan, who is stationed at Tinker Air Force Base. That afternoon, Harlan took Mosby and George to Turner Falls, which includes a 77-foot natural waterfall that empties into a pool.
“At first, we weren’t even going to go, but we found out military got in free, so we just paid for (George) to get in,” Mosby said.
Mosby, Harlan and George swam in the pool underneath the waterfall, where they saw the five exchange students of Oklahoma City University wading into the water.
“They were just messing around in the shallow area,” Mosby said. “Their arms were like chained together, and we just assumed it was because they couldn’t swim very well.”
The students slipped over the rocks where, according to the police report, the shallow water gives way to a depth of about 8-10 feet. Mosby, Harlan and George heard the men yell for help and looked over to see them splashing and screaming.
“It went off in our head, then we all just ran out there to try to grab the guys,” Mosby said. “I know it was the right thing to do, and it was just something that, I don’t know if it came natural or whatever, but we didn’t hesitate to get out there and get ’em.”
Mosby, Harlan and George quickly swam over and launched into rescue mode, fighting not to be drowned themselves as they struggled to save the men. They grabbed the first two men they could get hold of and took them to the shallow water.
“We went back to get the other two, and they were pretty far underwater,” Mosby said. “We had to dive down to find them, and you could only see about two foot in front of your face with your eyes open underwater.”
They pulled the other two men to the shallow end. One of the four required some resuscitation. With very limited English, the exchange students continued pointing and screaming toward the water, and Mosby and his friends returned to the deep area to look for another victim.
At that point, one other person — from Mosby’s estimate of “like 100” people standing around watching — joined the rescue effort.
“We went back and we dove down, and dove down, and dove down, and looked, and looked,” Mosby said. “We dove for probably 15, 20 minutes. We couldn’t find anybody.”
First Responders arrived on the scene and told everyone to get out of the water. The body of the fifth exchange student was found later that afternoon.
Mosby said he, Harlan and George “were all pretty pissed” when they left Turner Falls because of the failure of other witnesses to help them.
“By the time we got the four guys that we were able to save, and we were going back down there looking for that fifth guy, we were winded, and we’d had to sit,” Mosby said. “We had to go to the side for a little bit, catch our breath, go back out, tread water, dive down.
“I saw people videotaping it. Who could sit back and videotape that and not put down the camera and maybe go help?”
Davis Police Chief Daniel Cooper, who compiled the incident report, couldn’t be reached for comment.
SFC Curtis Chalupa, the noncommissioned officer in charge of Mosby at the Emporia reserve center, recommended Mosby for the Soldier’s Medal last month. He said Mosby didn’t mention the incident to him until the beginning of November.
“He just brought it up — he goes, ‘Oh yeah, by the way, me and one of my buddies had to pull some people out of some water that were drowning,’” Chalupa recalled. “I was like, ‘Really?’
“He goes, ‘Yeah,’ and then he didn’t say anything. I was like, ‘Mosby, that’s a pretty big deal, man.’”
About a week later, Chalupa talked to a master sergeant at Tinker, who told him that Harlan had been submitted for an Airman’s Medal for his role in the rescue.
“I was like, ‘OK, well I’m submitting my guy for a Soldier’s Medal,’” Chalupa said.
In addition to being a high honor, Chalupa said, the Soldier’s Medal is a tough one to gain approval for. It has to be approved by officers at every level from captain to three-star general, and the entire process usually takes nine months to a year.
“It’s quite a big deal, I guess,” Mosby said. “I didn’t know what it was at first. I didn’t expect to get one, really. But now that I know I’ve been nominated for one, I feel pretty good about myself.”
slipandslide (anonymous) says...
once again our soldiers are a source of pride. its too bad no one else helped, maybe the last person could have been saved, two guys cant pull in five people by themselves. thanks for being the kind of guys you are
December 7, 2007 at 12:45 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
cityhic04 (anonymous) says...
That is a great expamle of why we should never stop supporting our troops. I have known this man since we were kids and this is one of the many reasons i haven't given up on him throughout the years. He is a great soldier and an even better friend.
SGT Whitaker, Denver
92nd Eng BN
Ft. Stewart GA
December 20, 2007 at 2:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )