PORT ARTHUR, Texas — Rolando Caballero of Port Arthur was posthumously awarded the Carnegie Medal for Extraordinary Acts of Heroism Monday afternoon for his selfless attempt to save his drowning friend back in July of 2021.
With this announcement, the Carnegie Medal has been awarded to 10,422 individuals since the inception of the Pittsburgh-based Fund in 1904. Those in public safety vocations must go beyond their line of duty to be considered.
Caballero and his friend 70-year-old-friend Halil Cakmaktas were out fishing near a channel connecting Keith Lake to the Port Arthur Ship Canal on July 21, 2021.
Cakmaktas was fishing on a narrow concrete pier when he suddenly slipped and plunged into the fast moving waters below.
The 63-year-old Caballero wasted no time jumping into action after hearing Cakmaktas' cries for help while he was baiting crabs on the shore with his wife.
Caballero told his wife to retrieve a bundle of rope from their car, which he then used to try to throw to the struggling Cakmaktas.
After several attempts proved unsuccessful, Caballero then tied the rope around his waist, handed the end to his wife, and waded his way deep into the the treacherous current.
Caballero continued to fight through the rushing water to get to his friend until he was swimming about 50 feet from shore.
Sadly, right when Cakmaktas was in arms length of Caballero, the older man simply couldn't fight the current any longer and submerged completely.
After desperately searching for Cakmaktas, Caballero called for his wife to pull him back, but the rope had come untethered.
Caballero's wife could still see him and called out instructions for him to lay on his back and float, but tragically the current proved to strong, pulling him underwater and out of sight.
Firefighters later found both Caballero's and Cakmaktas' bodies about an hour later, both men had tragically drowned.
Even with the tragic outcome, Rolando Caballero will now forever be immortalized as a hero who would risk everything to save the life of another.
In a press release, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission said that all the men and women recognized today, in acts of extraordinary heroism, risked serious injury or death to save others. Each individual will receive the Carnegie Medal, North Americas highest honor for civilian heroism.
According to their website, each of the recipients or their survivors will receive a financial grant. Throughout the 120 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, $45 million has been given in one time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance.
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