Heroes Welcome

Heroes Welcome

Connor Stotts describes his first swimming experience as “frightening.” He was a 10-year-old taking beginner swim lessons with a group of 5- and 6-year-olds.

In time, his skills and confidence in the water increased, and he became a junior lifeguard. Though he never expected to save someone’s life, he knew he could.

That day came July 30, 2011, when the 17-year-old Stotts and his friends were enjoying a typical summer day in Oceanside, Calif. The teens relaxed at a mall then headed to a church barbecue for free food. That evening, on another whim, he decided to get baptized in the ocean.

Afterward, Stotts and five friends went for a swim, and their carefree day turned deadly serious when a riptide pulled them out to sea.

Instinct took over for Stotts, an Eagle Scout. He quickly assessed the situation, recognizing their immediate danger. He urged his friends to wave their arms and yell to parishioners on the beach. Their frantic pleas for help were returned with smiles and waves. (The group thought the teens were just having fun, they later learned.)

Realizing that help was not coming, Stotts swiftly swam to Belle Ainu’u, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her to safety. Then he went after the others.

Stotts swam to Christian Osuna, his best friend and former high school wrestling teammate, who was “the hardest one to save.” He grabbed Osuna’s hand and tried to get a toehold in the sand. But the current was too strong, dragging away his foot once, twice and then again. Finally, on the fifth try, Stotts secured himself in the sand and used his leverage to pull Osuna from the riptide.

“(Christian’s) a proud dude,” he says. “When he asked for my help, it was a scary moment. The seriousness of it hit me. He wouldn’t ask for help otherwise. Trying to pull him back in, I swallowed a lot of seawater and experienced that sensation like I was drowning.”

By this time, two other teens had made it back to safety on their own. But there was no time for Stotts to rest. Bella’s sister, Karen, was caught in the riptide and losing consciousness.

Stotts swam to Karen, put her on his back and held her arms around his neck so she wouldn’t slip off. This maneuver kept her afloat but forced him to swim several hundred yards to safety using only one arm. Once he could stand, he carried her back to the beach.

Back on dry land, recovering, the teens reflected on Stotts’ heroism. “That’s when it kind of hit me what happened,” he says. “I was thanking God. It was a powerful night, being baptized and going through the ordeal. I didn’t want a big deal to be made out of it. But I knew in the back of my mind something might happen.”

When Stotts returned home that night, he didn’t tell his parents what had happened. Instead, Brian Stotts – a member of American Legion Post 49 in Albuquerque – and his wife, Gizele, received a flurry of text messages thanking them and their son for his actions. The couple was proud of Connor but couldn’t figure out why he hadn’t talked about what happened at the beach.
“I’m kind of shy,” admits the young man, who’s now a sophomore in the Navy ROTC program at the University of Southern California.

American Legion Post 146 in Oceanside, Calif., was the first organization to honor Stotts, giving him its Citizenship Award. That was followed by recognition from the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation, which chose Stotts and two others to receive its 2014 Citizen Honors awards.

Every year, hundreds of Americans are nominated for the Citizen Honors program (aka the Service Before Self Honors). A committee of Medal of Honor recipients narrows the list down to 20, and a separate group selects three nominees to receive medals. The guidelines are simple: nominees must have made a difference in the life of another through an act of extraordinary heroism or through continued commitment toward putting others first.

“What’s so powerful about it is that all of the nominees did it just out of love,” says Clint Romesha, a former

Army staff sergeant who received the Medal of Honor last year for his actions at the Battle of Kamdesh in Afghanistan in 2009. “In the military, we put on a uniform, and we know the inherent risk of danger. But when average American citizens see their countrymen, their neighbor, their friends, their family in need of help, they react. And they do it because that’s the greatest thing about being in this country: that brotherly love and independent spirit to continue to drive on.”

The other recipients of the 2014 awards were:

  • Sharon Landsberry, who accepted the honor on behalf of her husband, Michael, a retired Marine who was shot and killed while trying to protect students in his school from a 12-year-old boy with a gun. Michael, a member of the Nevada Air National Guard, served two tours in Afghanistan.
  • Troy Yocum, an Operation Iraqi Freedom Army veteran, who has raised more than $1.3 million for military families through Active Heroes, a Kentucky-based charity that supports veterans.

The recipients were honored this year during a Medal of Honor Day event at Arlington National Cemetery. The 30 Medal of Honor recipients in attendance applauded the civilian heroes.

“This proves why (the United States) is still the greatest country in the world,” Romesha says. “It’s a great reminder that heroic acts – uncommon valor – are not a thing of the past. They’re still alive and well and thriving.”

View the Legion’s updated collection of first-person video stories by Medal of Honor recipients: www.legion.org/medalofhonor

Nominations for the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation’s Citizen Honors are accepted beginning Oct. 1. To nominate someone or learn more about the program, go online: www.cmohfoundation.org/citizen-honors

Henry Howard is deputy director of magazine operations for The American Legion.