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Air War College student saves lives in Africa water rescue

  • Published
  • By Joy Ovington
  • Air University Public Affairs
An Air War College student at Maxwell jumped to action to prevent two girls from careening over one of the world's largest waterfalls March 8.

During a school trip to Africa, Lt. Col. Keith Andrews rescued two girls who fell into the water at the top of Victoria Falls in Zambia.

The morning his Regional Cultural Studies class crossed over from Botswana into Zambia, they walked down to Victoria Falls and took photographs at the front of the falls, donning raincoats to keep themselves dry.

As four of the class's men walked to the top of the falls for more photos, the Columbus, Ga., native said his "father instinct" raised his awareness of a group on girls on a rock, dangerously close to the water, talking on a cell phone. The girls were about 150 feet from where the river drops 400 feet downward, witnesses reported. One girl allegedly bumped into another and both girls lost their footing and fell into the cold water.

"As I turned around when I heard them splash in, I first saw the looks on their faces; they were desperately grabbing for the edge and the water was sucking them out," the colonel said.

"Immediately, I jumped down there, right on my knee," he said. "I was able to brace myself and also reach back and hold on to the other rock. If I'd have been a split second later they'd have been gone.

"There were two girls who went into the water," Colonel Andrews said. "The other girl, she was almost a real goner. She was holding on to the leg of the girl closest to the land, and she was screaming. I leaned as far as I could to reach the closest girl and grabbed her arm and wrist, then pull them both up and out of the fast-moving river."

The Zambian girls were in shock and soaking wet, but they were alive and safe, said Colonel Andrews. Their parents approached the colonel to thank him.

"That night I actually woke up at about midnight, and I couldn't get back to sleep," he said. "Just seeing the faces of those girls and thinking about what would have happened if I hadn't have been there. I'm just glad they are safe."

Andrews said that the "blessing" part of this - the part that allowed him to move so quickly - was that he had just taken off his raincoat and given his new camera to a classmate as he posed for the photo when the girls splashed into the Zambezi River behind him.

"I think the good Lord put me in the right place at the right time and made me light enough," he said.

He told the tale of another instance in the past when he was "at the right place at the right time." Once again he was at Maxwell and, while traveling nearby, he saw a car accident and he and another man gave CPR to the crash victims.

A witness to the event, Lt. Col. Christian "Chewy" Watt said, "I've known Keith Andrews for about eight years and he's a man of honor, integrity, passion; he cares for people; he cares about doing the right thing and helping. I believe he was there for a reason, and he did exactly what he was supposed to do."

The colonel has high praise for the class that took him to Africa.

"The Regional Cultural Studies class was awesome, and I definitely learned above what I thought I was going to learn," the colonel said, giving praise to his AWC Strategic Leadership instructor Dr. Daniel Henk, who also serves as a social anthropologist in the Department of International Security Studies and is a specialist in African affairs. "He was able to not only teach the course material, but give his personal accounts."

As part of the AWC Regional Cultural Studies course, Colonel Andrews' class had the opportunity to travel to evaluate areas of the world where a regional unified combatant commander must implement the national military strategy in support of U.S. security policy.