FORT MONTGOMERY, N.Y. — (AP) — An Army football player and his father pulled a man from a crashed car just before it burst into flames near the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, earning praise from the institution for "heroic" and "selfless" actions.
Video of the daring rescue early Sunday showed sophomore safety Larry Pickett Jr. and his father, Larry Pickett Sr., grabbing the man out of the driver's seat and carrying him away from the vehicle.
At one point, a woman could be heard screaming: “Larry! Come on! Come on! Get him out!”
The car, a white sedan, had smashed into a utility pole on Route 9W in Fort Montgomery, New York, about 4 miles (6 kilometers) from West Point, authorities said. Video of the rescue, recorded by Pickett Jr.'s sister, Lauren, showed sparking wires surrounding the vehicle.
The Picketts, in town for Pickett Jr.’s first football game of the season, came upon the crash just after midnight while driving back to campus after a family dinner in New York City’s Times Square. They stayed with the man until police and firefighters arrived.
"We knew that car was about to catch on fire and whoever was in there was going to burn up, and we couldn't just watch and let that happen," Pickett Jr. told the sports news website The Athletic. "We got out, ran over, jumped over the power line, opened the door. He still had his seatbelt on."
“What if we got there just a minute later?” Pickett Jr. said.
Pickett Sr. told WTVD-TV in their hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina, that his son "mentioned his military training kicked in" and "jumped right into action."
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll commended Pickett Jr. in a social media post, saying the 20-year-old "embodies the highest values of the Army and West Point: duty, honor, country."
“He showed that he can stand ready to act under pressure, whether on the football field, in his community, or in the future with the Soldiers under his command,” Driscoll wrote. “We are proud — and deeply grateful — for his heroism.”
The U.S. Military Academy echoed that sentiment, posting that it was "proud of the heroic actions" taken by Pickett Jr. and his father. The academy's athletic director, Tom Theodorakis, wrote that their conduct is "exactly what we strive to develop ... leadership, courage, and selfless service."
“Cadet Larry Pickett Jr. and his father exemplify the values we hold dear, stepping up in a moment of crisis to save a life,” Theodorakis wrote. “Proud to see these traits in action, on and off the fields of friendly strife. Count the brave.”
Pickett Jr.’s off-field heroics came a day after he saw action in Army’s season opener, assisting on a tackle on a kickoff in the first quarter of the Black Knights’ 30-27 overtime loss Friday night to Tarleton State. His next game is Sept. 6 at Kansas State.
“Thank you Jesus that this man will live to see another day! I am so grateful for my son LJ for saving his life!” Pickett Sr. wrote in a Facebook post accompanying his daughter’s video.
The elder Pickett’s account of the rescue appeared alongside videos of Pickett Jr. playing football and posts about the cadet being featured in the EA Sports College Football 26 video game and named as Army football’s “Skill Worker of the Week.”
Pickett Jr.’s actions were a “testament to the character West Point is building in him — a readiness to go into the line of fire, not just for his country, but for anyone who needs it," Pickett Sr. wrote.
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