Rising to the challenge

This picture appeared on Facebook the other day, a photo from an accident near the 14th St Bridge in Washington, DC. It occurred on as lovely a June day as you're ever going to see around here - moderate temps, low humidity, just perfect.

January 13, 1982 was just the opposite kind of day. Here in Baltimore and down in DC as well, it was a biting cold day, with snow falling. The DC Airport closed for traffic in the morning but reopened at noon, and at 4 PM, an Air Florida Boeing 737 took off for Florida. The flight lasted just seconds. Unaccustomed to de-icing a plane, the pilots went ahead with takeoff, only to crash into the 14th Street Bridge below, which carries traffic on busy I-395.

The plane was half in the water, half out, and sinking. Several cars on the bridge were struck, and traffic going nowhere meant a lot of people got out to see what was happening.

A man named Lenny Skutnik, who worked running errands and handling mail for the Congressional Budget Office, was one such person, but unlike most of the eddying mob, Lenny did something.   

A National Park Service helicopter hovered above as people on the bank of the river tried to reach out for survivors from the plane. Lenny saw a woman who was too weakened to reach out for the rescue ring lifesaver lowered down from  the chopper.

So Lenny became the lifesaver. He was 28, had never so much as taken a life-saving course, and dove into the freezing water and swam to her, bringing her back to the riverbank. Her name was Priscilla Tirado; she was one of five people who survived aboard that plane bound for the sunny climes of Florida.

78 people on the plane died.

  

                               Mrs Linda Skutnik, Lenny, and Nancy Reagan

Lenny found himself on the shore shirtless and freezing, having given away his parka to a man. He was making $14,000 a year at the time, supporting a wife and two sons, and when he was told he needed to go to a hospital to be checked out, his first thought was whether it was going to cost him anything.

No way. He got an hour's dunk in a hot tub, and thirteen days later, was invited to appear in the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives for President Ronald Reagan's State of the Union address. The somnambulant president, who often spoke of the heroic actions of others while not mentioning that he spent World War II making movies for the Army Air Force, heaped well-earned praise on Lenny, saying he "represented the spirit of American heroism at its finest.” The nation cheered, and Congress rose as a man and woman to give a true hero a true hero's welcome.

Lenny retired in 2010 from the CBO, but to this day, the mention of his name brings out pride and admiration. 

And to this day, every State of the Union address features stories of people deserving recognition and applause. They sit in the gallery with the First Lady and are saluted warmly.

And to this day, these people are known as "this year's Lenny Skutnik."