THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 23, 1994 TAG: 9406230454
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SARAH HUNTLEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940623 LENGTH: NORFOLK
``I kind of looked over into the water and saw these kids splashing around. A man on the side of the interstate was waving his hands and said the kids were drowning,'' Scanlon said. ``One of the boys was yelling for help.''
{REST} Scanlon left his pickup idling on the Norfolk-bound side of the highway where the bridge is about 15 feet above the water.
Then the Navy aviation machinist's mate started to climb down a rope he and another motorist tied to the bridge, but the rope was too thin, so he did the next best thing.
``I started slipping and cut my hands, so I just jumped,'' Scanlon said.
Scanlon swam nearly 200 yards to the boys, who were trying to keep their heads above water while fending off stinging jellyfish.
When Scanlon arrived, the small, aluminum boat was under water. He pushed the boat up so it would stay afloat and the boys could hang on.
``Two of the kids were hurting because of the stings. The other one was tired. He couldn't get back to the boat so I helped him,'' Scanlon said. ``They wanted to swim to shore. They were worried about getting into trouble. But they were just too tired.''
None of the boys - Robert Carey, 12, Kevin Carroll, 11, and Dustin Young, 15 - was wearing a life jacket, but they all said they knew how to swim.
When the Coast Guard arrived, the boys and Scanlon, wet and winded, were holding on to the boat. The rescue crews towed them to the public boat ramp on Willoughby Spit, where an ambulance was waiting.
Sgt. Scott Litchfield of the Nor
folk Police Harbor Patrol said the boat capsized because ``the kids got to playing and fooling around.'' He credited Scanlon with saving the boys.
As the shirtless boys stood next to their mothers in the parking lot of the the boat ramp, they explained that they had been rowing under the bridge to go swimming when the boat filled with water and sank around 2 p.m.
``Dustin and Robert started moving about, and water just came in,'' Kevin said.
``I started swimming with the oars and some guy on the highway saved us.''
Kevin abandoned the wooden oars and grabbed onto the boat, because the oars kept coming up out of the water and hitting him on the head, Scanlon said.
None of the youths was hurt. Scanlon, who lives in Newport News and serves with a helicopter squadron in Norfolk, was treated at a Navy clinic for cuts and rope burns on his hands.
``I didn't realize I did anything until after the fact,'' Scanlon said.
{KEYWORDS} ACCIDENT BOAT RESCUE
by CNB