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DRAPER — A member of the Utah Air National Guard received a prestigious medal in an awards ceremony Aug. 4, after saving two people drowning near a South Carolina beach last year.
Airman Jacob Teel was on leave from his deployment with an air control squadron in South Carolina in May 2023, and was visiting a beach in the seaside town Isle of Palms when a frantic scene unfolded, according to a press release from the Utah National Guard.
Someone on the beach was calling for help, after seeing two swimmers get pulled into the ocean, struggling to stay above water.
"Despite not considering himself a strong swimmer, Teel acted without hesitation. He plunged into the water, fighting exhaustion and the danger of ingesting seawater, and managed to reach the struggling pair, securing them on the board and bringing them safely to shore," the release said.
It was a close call for Rebecca Bennett, who was vacationing at Isle of Palms with her four children. She had seen her 13-year-old son pulled out into the ocean, and grabbed a bodyboard to rescue him. The release said "powerful currents quickly pulled them underwater."
Bennett later told a member of the National Guard, "I accepted that this was where we were going to die, and a feeling of peace washed over me. But then (her son) said he didn't want to die, and it reminded me I had three other kids on the beach, and I couldn't leave them. Will and I started praying and asking for help and, right then, the wave came down, and I saw Jacob on the beach. I knew we were saved."
Teel ran out into the water. He was able to grab Bennett's bodyboard and get to the pair, swimming them back to shore.
"After that near-death experience, I look at my daughter Faith, who has special needs, and remember I almost wasn't here for her," Bennett said, according to the release. "I'm thankful every day for Jacob Teel. He's a hero in our home."
In a ceremony Aug. 4, Teel received the Airman's Medal — an award given to anyone serving with the U.S. Air Force who "has distinguished himself or herself by a heroic act, usually at the voluntary risk of his or her life but not involving actual combat," according to the Air Force.
"It's not every day that we have a deployed individual that steps completely outside of their job in the military, and into something they don't have experience in, to save the lives of others," Adjutant General Daniel Boyack, who took command of the Utah National Guard in August 2023, said.
