Using a Garmin Smartwatch as a Tool with Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer Scott Ruskan

Other than W.O.E. team member Ben, we don’t always get the opportunity to shine a light on the United States Coast Guard. This is by no means intentional, and we have the utmost respect for the small seagoing service that has been catapulted into mainstream media attention in recent months thanks to its actions in South America, as well as several high-profile domestic rescue operations. 

In July of last year, a USCG Rescue Swimmer named Scott Ruskan did something incredible. Dropped off by his helicopter near a kids' summer camp in Kerrville County, Texas, Ruskan coordinated the rescue of 165 children cut off from first responders and the rest of civilization by rising floodwater. The events gained widespread attention, and Ruskan’s watch also played a role, a story that hasn’t been told. 

At W.O.E., we have often discussed the counterintelligence risks posed by connected devices for both military members and intelligence officers. But what about domestic search and rescue? As it turns out, for someone like a USCG Rescue Swimmer, connectivity is a significant feature, and a Garmin is a near-perfect tool. For everyone we’ve upset by saying a smartwatch isn’t a great idea in many scenarios, today is your day. 

Ruskan wearing his issued Garmin. (Photo Credit: Justin Bastien)

Cut off from communication while rescuing 165 children from historic flooding in Central Texas, Scott Ruskan put his Garmin Fenix to work 

By Benjamin Lowry 

04 July 2025 - Central Texas 

Flooding began on the banks of the Guadalupe River in the early hours of the July 4th holiday in 2025. Camp Mystic is a girls’ Christian summer camp located on the river’s banks, and when the Guadalupe rose 26 feet in 45 minutes, the rising water swept aside cabins, trees, cars, and even a bus. 27 people, including 24 children, two counselors, and the camp director, lost their lives as another 700-plus campers and counselors were stranded, some of them injured, in desperate need of help.

Water levels inside some Camp Mystic cabins were as high as eight feet. (Photo Credit: AFP)

As a torrent of 911 calls poured in, a call went out to aviation-capable rescue agencies far and wide. At US Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi, Scott Ruskan, a newly minted Rescue Swimmer, was awoken and told he and the rest of the duty crew were responding to a flood. Camp Mystic is just under 200 miles from Corpus Christi as the crow, or an MH-65E Dolphin helicopter, flies, but it still took CG-6553 over six hours to get there, slowed by the horrific state of the weather. 

Once on scene, the helicopter landed, and the crew medevaced four of the worst-off children, leaving Ruskan behind. On his first operational mission, Ruskan stepped off the plane and quickly realized that he was the only first responder for hundreds of tired, cold, wet, and terrified kids. 

Beyond a small handheld radio that could only communicate with his departed Coast Guard helicopter, the young Swimmer was on his own. To keep track of his position, should he need to relay it to authorities, he followed his training and started a “Tactical Activity” on his issued Garmin Fenix 7x Solar. This feature tracks and records the wearer’s current location using GPS, displays the elevation, and provides real-time coordinates in two coordinate systems. If he needed to travel off the X, Ruskan’s Garmin meant he’d be able to easily share his position. 

For Ruskan, his Garmin is as much a tool as his mask or fins. (Photo Credit: Justin Bastien)

Ruskan immediately assumed the role of on-scene triage coordinator. As a fleet of 12 state, federal, and military helicopters arrived one by one, he loaded them with children and sent them on their way, repeating the process until, after three hours, Ruskan had coordinated the evacuation of 165 people. Only one week later, Petty Officer Ruskan and the 6553’s pilot, Lieutenant Ian Hopper, were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by then-DHS Chief Kristi Noem, who wore her gold Daytona for the ceremony. 

What is a Rescue Swimmer?  

Painting by marine artist Bryan Snuffer of a Coast Guard HH3-F “Pelican”, the airframe that responded to the SS Marine Electric’s sinking. 

Founded in 1984, the Coast Guard’s Rescue Swimmer rating or job was created in response to the 1983 Marine Electric disaster, where 31 survivors from a sunken 605-foot bulk carrier died of hypothermia even though Coast Guard rescue helicopters were on scene. At the time, the aircrew wasn’t trained to enter the water to assist survivors who were too cold or injured to load themselves into rescue baskets. The need for Rescue Swimmers, formally known today as Aviation Survival Technicians (AST), was clear. 

Other than fifteen minutes of fame following the 2006 film, The Guardian, starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher, the Coast Guard’s AST community is largely unheralded and small, with only around 1100 individuals earning the title since 1984 (Ruskan is Rescue Swimmer #1096) and fewer than 300 Rescue Swimmers in service at a given time. It’s not an easy job to get, either, with attrition rates at the legendary AST “A” School hovering around 70 percent.

Tyler Jaggers was a young Rescue Swimmer who lost his life in the performance of his duties. (Photo Credit: 646 Photography)

The job comes with serious risks. Another young Swimmer, Petty Officer Tyler Jaggers, tragically lost his life on 05 March 2026 from injuries sustained during a rescue operation aboard a vessel, the Momi Arrow, approximately 120 nautical miles west of Cape Flattery, Washington. 

Ruskan was only six months out from completing the AST pipeline when the Camp Mystic rescue took place, evidence that his training worked well enough. For the news and social media, it was almost too good to be true: a young servicemember rescues 165 children from a deadly flood on his first mission on the Fourth of July? 

Ruskan wearing his Garmin in a press photo shortly following the events at Camp Mystic. (Photo Credit: US Coast Guard)

The story took off, and I, a proud former Coastie, quickly noticed the Garmin on Ruskan’s wrist as he dominated the news cycle. I contacted Ruskan and asked him about the watch. I didn’t expect to hear back, but months after the media firestorm slowed (Ruskan also received the Legion of Merit in February 2026), I did hear back from a guy who calls himself “just a dude”, and he graciously made time to connect. 

As it turns out, the Garmin Fenix is firmly entrenched in Rescue Swimmer culture and operational doctrine. 

Garmin & USCG Search and Rescue 

In addition to being better at open ocean swimming than normal humans, ASTs are also emergency medical technicians with advanced training in inland and high-angle rescue. While rescue operations on the high seas typically involved a Rescue Swimmer with the helicopter overhead, inland operations often find a Swimmer on their own, as was Ruskan’s case in Central Texas. For a constant source of lat and long data, the USCG deemed it necessary for ASTs to carry a personal GPS to track their location in austere conditions, and that tool today is the Garmin Fenix. 

The Garmin Fenix is an official tool in the USCG Rescue Swimmer toolkit.

With several iterations of the watch issued at the unit level, the Garmin Fenix is part of Rescue Swimmer doctrine, and each AST receives training in how to use the watch at an inland search and rescue course. The Fenix is also listed in the AST equipment manual, providing not only location data in operational scenarios but also fitness and sleep tracking, which are important in a line of work where physical fitness and readiness are at the core of the profession’s culture. 

According to Ruskan, there are certain areas on USCG installations where ASTs must remove their Garmins for operational security reasons, but, in general, the watches are safe to use for virtually all training and operational scenarios. This stands in contrast to the risks associated with smartwatches for certain servicemembers and intelligence officers, but underlines the concept of having the right tool for a particular job. 

For his actions, Ruskan and the pilot were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by then-DHS Chief Kristi Noem, who wore her gold Daytona. (Photo Credit: US Coast Guard)

When I spoke with him, Ruskan, who ran track in college, was clear he wasn’t a “watch guy”, as such, and reported owning a Timex Ironman, various Casio models, as well as a Garmin Forerunner and an earlier version of the Fenix before being issued his current Fenix 7X Solar. With that being said, he also mentioned being a fan of W.O.E., and coveting a Rolex Submariner “somewhere down the line”. We love to see it. 

Final Thoughts

At Watches of Espionage, we often dismiss connected watches as liabilities, and for many of us, they are. But Scott Ruskan’s story is a reminder that context is everything. On the wrist of a Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer standing alone amid rising floodwaters, a Garmin Fenix wasn’t a distraction or a potential counterintelligence vulnerability; it was a lifeline providing reliable location data. 

In search and rescue, tools matter. Training matters even more. And when preparation meets purpose, even a modern smartwatch can earn its place alongside the most storied mechanical legends we so often celebrate. For the Coast Guard’s Rescue Swimmers, the right watch isn’t about heritage or hype. It’s about bringing people home.

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