RAPCON staff sergeant rescues children from Arkansas river Published Oct. 23, 2013 By Senior Airman Frank Casciotta 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Staff Sgt. Adam Lewis and five friends were packing up after lunch while on canoeing trip in Arkansas last May when two children on an inner tube came floating down the river on what, until that point, was a gentle current. The children were approaching a bend in the river where the current becomes faster, deeper and wider. The younger of the two was pulled away from the tube and they both screamed. Lucky for the children, Lewis was watching them. "We all heard the girls screaming for help and turned our canoes around, but Adam sprinted into the rapids and rescued both children," said Daniel Daves, a friend of Lewis' who was on the canoeing trip. "He was out in deep, fast-moving water with no stable footing and wrestled both children out of the rapids without assistance." Lewis handed the children over to their father when he arrived on scene. "He thanked me," said Lewis, a Benton, Ark. native. "While he was occupied looking over his daughters I excused myself and rejoined my friends. "I feel like anyone would have done it," said Lewis, an air traffic control watch supervisor with the 71st Operations Support Squadron. "I have kids of my own and I just went into papa-bear mode." Lewis was on leave in Arkansas to attend his friend's wedding and in lieu of a bachelor party the groom-to-be wanted to take a canoe and camping trip down the Buffalo River with his friends last May. "For the rest of the trip we thought of Adam as our 'all-time lifeguard,'" said Daves. On Oct. 21, Lewis was awarded an Air Force Achievement medal at Vance AFB for his efforts.