Sunday, June 30, 2002
Heroic ex-marine became Roush's guardian angel
By DAVID JONES
FLORIDA TODAY
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — When Larry Hicks came home from Vietnam in the summer of 1970, he was greeted as a horror instead of a hero.
“I don't talk about that. Anybody that was there and understands what they saw, it was not a popular war in the first place,” he recalled. “I remember when we came back home, people were protesting and spitting on us at the airport, calling us baby killers, you name it. It was not a good homecoming.”
Today, the 52-year-old Marine veteran of 22 years can't go anywhere in the town of Troy, Ala., without being recognized. He's gotten phone calls and letters from not only racing fans, but Marines and just well-wishers from all over the world.
One quick decision on April 19 changed Hicks' life. And his heroics - finding veteran car owner Jack Roush at the bottom of a muddy Alabama lake and blowing life back into his lungs - made him forever a part of Winston Cup racing lore.
“My biggest prayer for 2002 was that I wouldn't have to bury any of my friends or family,” said Mark Martin, who has been driving for Roush since 1988. “I'm just so grateful that my prayers are coming true so far.”
The days that followed will forever remain a blur in Roush's life.
“I remember nothing about the 18th or the day of the 19th or the day of the 20th, the 21st or the 22nd or the 23rd or the 24th,” Roush said. “My first memories are of the things that happened on the 25th.”
The evening news out of Montgomery was just coming on the television as Hicks sat back in his recliner in the living room of his home on a lake in Troy, anticipating dinner and a relaxing evening.
Hicks loves his home, where he can look out the double doors onto a large lake about 40 yards away and watch the sunshine twinkle off the water. He had just gotten home from work as a conservation officer on that fateful day and was discussing with his wife, Donna, whether or not they wanted to go to a movie that night.
About that time, a small plane started over the lake.
“We looked up and Donna said, 'Look at the plane,' and I said, 'Yeah, that's pretty,' “ Hicks recalled. “So we watched it for a little bit and the next thing we knew, it hit the power lines about 100 yards off shore. Our backyard backs up into a 50-acre lake and of course when he hit the power line, he flipped upside down and fell back in the water and submerged in about eight feet of water.
“When he hit the power lines, that's when I took off. I told Donna to call 911 and I was running across the backyard and jumped into a boat we had back there in the backyard. I've got a little 14-foot aluminum john boat.
“Fortunately, I had the troller motor hooked up and the battery was charged, so I didn't have to swim to him. But I had to go out 100 yards. All told, he was under water about six minutes. He had already drowned when I got to him. He was already clinically dead when I got to him.”
Guardian angel
Jack Roush loves flying an airplane almost as much as he does the race car business. Over the years, Roush has built his racing team into one of the most respected in the field.
But last year had been a struggle for Roush Racing. Martin had his worst finish in 13 seasons, Jeff Burton had his worst showing in five years and Matt Kenseth didn't have a top-three finish after being the top rookie in Cup racing in 2000.
After some crew changes, the team was coming back this year and Roush Racing seemed righted again. On the night Roush was flying over the Alabama lake, he was feeling excited and happy. It was his 60th birthday and he was visiting some friends, flying a lightweight airplane he'd dreamed of owning and some friends in Troy had found for him.
Then the plane struck the power line and Roush's wonderful life appeared to be over.
“What a miracle that is, to have your guardian angel 50 yards away, right when you got to have him,” said Geoff Smith, president of Roush Racing.
To this day, Hicks calls it fate that that plane splashed down in front of him.
In the Marine Corps, part of his training was recovering downed pilots. He happened to have a working boat at the edge of the lake, and he happened to be home from work just minutes before the plane went by.
He even happened to have special training in the seatbelt that kept Roush buckled into the plane upside down, so he knew how to release it. Anyone else would have torn at the belt and never gotten him out.
By the time Hicks got to the plane, he knew he was almost out of time.
“There was a piece of wreckage sticking out of the water,” he said. “I took the john boat and tied it up to the wing that was sticking up and jumped in and started diving for him. I didn't find him on the first dive.
“I took a deep breath and went back down the second time and just about run out of air and started to push off the bottom and go back and get air again. And just as I started to push off, I felt the back of his neck.
“I said, 'OK, I've got him located.' I went up and took a deep breath and went back down a third time. On aviation planes, they have a quick-release seatbelt in the lap. When I hit that quick-release seatbelt in his lap, he floated right up into my arms.”
Hicks, who had no idea who the pilot was, realized he was running out of time but didn't panic.
“I pushed off the bottom of the lake and as soon as I broke the surface of the water, I threw my left arm out and tried to grab something,” he said.
“Fortunately, it jammed into the flap of one of the wings. The plane was upside down and one of the things I was worrying about was not so much being in the water but one of the engines was still smoking. And there was aviation fuel all over the water. I was thinking, 'This thing is going to blow up on me and we're going to burn.'
“I've always had this thing about burning.”
Reluctant hero
One thing was certain: The man Hicks had pulled out of the water was dead.
Hicks was certain of that because he is a war veteran. And in his duties as a conservation officer, this wasn't the first drowning victim he'd pulled out of an Alabama lake.
“When I brought him up it was very obvious he had drowned because I had recovered bodies in the lake close to home here in our job,” Hicks said. “I had recovered a little 9-year-old boy about two years ago. You can tell when they are drowned. They've got this very calm look and there are a lot of other features that you don't want to describe.”
But he wasn't about to give up on the pilot.
“I'm holding on to him with my right arm and my left arm was holding on to the plane,” Hicks said. “I stuck my ear next to his mouth and it was very obvious that he wasn't breathing. And I yelled to a police officer about 100 yards away on the bank, 'He's not breathing. Get the emergency crews here in a hurry.'
“I said to myself, 'Well, they're not getting here quick enough.' So I moved him over to my left arm and laid his head on my left arm and started a modified CPR and on the fifth breath, he jumped and he was breathing.
“That's when I got excited. I yelled at the police officers, 'I've got him back, he's breathing.' As soon as I said that, I think every police officer and emergency crew in Troy showed up on the beach. But by the time they got there, the aviation fuel had done its damage on me and Mr. Roush.”
Once they reached land, Roush was rushed into one of the ambulances, Hicks into another. Both were badly burned by the fuel that had leaked out of the plane.
“It was like laying in acid,” Hicks said. “It was burning. It was burning bad.”
But somehow, the ex-Marine held on to the injured pilot and got him to shore with the fuel on the top of the water eating away at his skin. Both men suffered serious burns. Hicks had his lungs and throat badly burned by the fuel he swallowed.
At first, it was feared Hicks' heroics were too late. But in the University of Alabama-Birmingham Hospital, Roush slowly recovered from several broken bones and a head injury and returned to the track on May 31 - two days before the MBNA Platinum 400 in Dover, Del. - calling himself “the luckiest person in the world.”
Roush admits being “humbled” by the incident and has named Hicks his “hero” dozens of times since. Hicks, on the other hand, has reluctantly dealt with the label. He was flown to a race in Richmond by the Marines.
Fans and drivers gave him a humbling reception. At the drivers' meeting before the race, Hicks was given a standing ovation that made him - along with some of the drivers - break down in tears.
“It wasn't a matter of who it was,” he said of that fateful day when Jack Roush crashed into his life. “It was just that I knew somebody was in trouble when he hit that power line. Even when they told me who he was, I didn't know who he was. So it didn't make any difference.
“I hate this hero title that everyone tries to hang on you because ... anybody with this (military) experience, or even without any experience, would have tried to do something. It just so happens that I had the training that was recovery for downed pilots. It's nice that he gets to go home to his family and I get to go home to mine.”
Hicks, of course, has since become a pretty big NASCAR fan. After getting hugs and handshakes from Martin, Burton and dozens of others in Roush Racing, he started to realize what a special man he had saved.
And when the evening news out of Montgomery comes on around dinner time each night, Hicks sits in his favorite chair, near the double doors, and reflects.
“I catch myself looking out at the lake, sure,” he said. “I've done that a lot of times since that day.”
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Heroic ex-marine became Roush's guardian angel
