Col. Scott Preston, Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Commander stands with Sean Smethers, Harold Gray, Grayson Carr, Lake Manager,Peat Robinson and Assistant Lake Manager Dakota Allison. Col. Preston presented Smethers, Robinson and Allison with awards following an effort to rescue Gray and Carr from a sinking vessell on 13 September at Kaw Lake. Persons on the sinking vessell were wearing life jackets.

Col. Scott Preston, Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Commander stands with Kaw Lake office staff, volunteers and civilians who were involved in helping rescue boaters in a sinking vessell on Kaw Lake on Sept. 13. Persons on the sinking vessell were wearing life jackets.

Colonel Scott Preston, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tulsa District Commander, presented a lifesaver award at the Kaw Lake Project Office Sept. 29, 2021 to Assistant Lake Manager Dakota Allison, Natural Resource Specialist Aaron Brown, Lake Manager Peat Robinson, and citizens Sean Smethers and John Chamberlin. The award recognizes their lifesaving efforts and diligent work in assisting in the rescue of a stranded family on a sinking vessel on Kaw Lake near the Osage Cove Public Use Area.

On 13 Sept. 2021 at approximately 11:15 a.m., a call was received at the Kaw Lake Project Office requesting help for a sinking vessel near the Osage Cove campground. The caller identified the vessel as carrying 70-year-old Harold Grey, Grayson Carr age 12 and Tillman Lauderbach age 15, a foreign exchange student from Germany.

After the call, Robinson was alerted and returned to the Project Office where he, Brown and Allison prepared the recovery boat for launch and, with maintenance worker Will Price, left for the McFadden Cove ramp being the closest to the office, to launch the boat and execute the rescue. Smethers learned of the sinking boat through a Facebook post and launched his own boat to assist in the rescue. Robinson and Brown arrived at the ramp around the same time and boarded Smethers’ boat where they navigated to the last known location of the sinking vessel. Allison remained onshore and provided ground coordination for the rescue.

At the scene, the men pulled Carr and Lauderbach into Smethers’ boat, while Grey was pulled onto Chamberlin’s boat and all brought to shore. Chamberlin was in the area because he was camping at Osage Cove and was asked by the campground volunteer if they could use his boat to assist with the rescue.

The rescue took about (how many minutes to get to them?) and fortunately all three people who had been on the sinking boat were wearing life jackets, which kept them afloat and allowed time for rescue.

“It always amazes me how fast everyone is able to get from being here in the office or out riding around the project, get a call, get to the boat, hook it up, get to a boat ramp and get in the water and out to help somebody,” Preston said.

September through April is considered the off-season Tulsa District projects and it is less likely for visitors to be out on the lake in a boat. This incident occurred on a Monday morning when lake traffic was very minimal. Kaw Lake staff were able to coordinate a fast response that aided in getting everyone off the sinking vessel and back to safety on shore. With the family wearing life jackets, it allowed time for first responders to rescue them.

“To me the real credit goes to Sean. He took the initiative; he was already headed out and dropped what he was doing to help,” Allison said.

Kaw Lake Natural Resource Specialist Michael Gross, Summer Ranger Zakk Burdg and maintenance worker Kole Bowman were waiting at the boat ramp at Osage Cove PUA to assist in loading the distressed vessel on to a trailer and getting it out of the water. Due to the quick reaction and selfless actions of all first responders and the use of life jackets three lives were saved.