BY GUS MORGAN

Even from across the Kenai River, George Wilcox could sense something was amiss.

On the opposite bank, a lone teenager, previously engaged in fishing, waded through the water, searching for something.

“I thought maybe he’d lost his cell phone or car keys,” said George, a sourcing and contracting specialist who was on a salmon fishing and rafting outing with his Alaska Supply Chain colleagues. 

George and his colleagues watched as the young man gave up his search and sat on the riverbank, his hands on his knees, his head bowed. 

“He looked upset,” George said. “At that moment, I thought of my own son, Lucas, also an avid fisherman about the same age, and I really felt sorry for him.”

The teenager eventually stood up and launched his one-man inflatable raft.

As the teenager started to row down river and through a dangerous sweeping bend, George then realized what the young man had been searching for and was now missing. 

“I realized he had lost one of his oar pins,” George said.

As the teenager attempted to steer through the sharp river bend with just one oar, the young man’s raft became caught in an eddy, spinning the inflatable raft in circles. The force of the current capsized the raft, plunging the teenager into the swift waters.

After submerging, the teenager resurfaced swiftly, buoyed by the life vest he was wearing. He was able to grab onto some branches and pull himself onto an island.

George was relieved the teenager was safely out of the water, but he was acutely aware of the seriousness of the teenager's situation and the potential for hypothermia to take hold, as the water temperature in the glacier-fed river was hovering around 53 degrees Fahrenheit.

“I’m going to help him,” George told his colleagues. “Let’s get over there.”

George rallied the three colleagues who were part of his rafting crew — Gail Painter, Dawn Bridges and Vey Sasis — and they set off to check on the stranded teenager. 

After launching and rowing across the river, George was able to maneuver the raft into the bend by rowing upriver and tie up alongside where the teenager was stranded. 

Once he reached the teenager and evaluated his well-being and surroundings, George decided the safest and best way to get him to safety was to disassemble the young man’s mangled raft, strap it on to his team's raft and then raft down toward a landing spot approximately an hour downstream.  

“He was a little cold and shaken,” George said, “but was doing fine for what he just went through.”

The teenager told them he had activated his emergency life support beacon after reaching the island, wary of another looming threat: a mother bear and her cubs lingering nearby.

“He could hear them,” George said, “but he couldn’t go anywhere. It was getting later in the day, and it wasn’t a good place to be.”

While heading to the landing, George called 911 to alert them that they had reached the teenager and provided his assessment of his condition and their plan, which allowed them to cancel the teenager’s rescue request. He also contacted the teenager's mother so she could meet them at the landing. 

George asked the teenager why he didn’t just yell over to them earlier when he lost his oar pin, as they would have helped him out. 

“He said he didn’t want to bother us,” said George, who advised the teenager to speak up in such situations, a safety message ingrained into George while working for ConocoPhillips.

“If something’s wrong, say something,” George coached the teenager. “Make sure to speak up in those situations. Don’t worry about bothering someone, even if it amounts to nothing.”