WEST POINT, N.Y. (WTVD) — At just 20 years old, college sophomore Larry Pickett Jr. can add an accomplishment to his already growing list of accolades. The former Enloe High School football player, who is now a football player at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, saved the life of a man from a burning vehicle Saturday in Highland Falls, New York.
“I mean, everything happened so fast,” Pickett told ABC11. “It wasn’t a lot of thinking, a lot of talking. Just reacting.”
The crash happened Saturday shortly after midnight and a day after Army lost its season opener 30-27 in double overtime to Tarleton State.
To me, it’s not really an accomplishment. It’s just, just helping out, honestly, just … selfless service.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t the outcome that we wanted,” he said of the Black Knights’ upset loss at home. A lot of things that we have to work on as a team. We did face a good football team. And then the event happening Saturday night. There wasn’t too much emotion there.”
Pickett said he and his father, Larry Pickett Sr., were driving down the road when they spotted a downed electrical line and the car in distress. The pair quickly jumped into action and can be seen on camera pulling the driver to safety.
“I remember him being very disoriented. Don’t remember his exact words,” said Pickett. “We could just tell that he was in need of help.”
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 about 3.8 miles from West Point, authorities said. Video of the rescue, recorded by Pickett Jr.’s sister, Lauren, showed sparking wires surrounding the vehicle.
“Just after midnight, I watched in awe as my son, Larry Pickett Jr., ran toward a burning vehicle, ignoring the downed power lines crackling around it,” Pickett Sr. wrote in a Facebook post accompanying his daughter’s video. “With immense courage, he pulled a man to safety, saving him from a fiery fate.”
There is no word on the extent of the driver’s injuries. Pickett Jr. said first responders arrived quickly and took over from there.
“To me, it’s not really an accomplishment. It’s just, just helping out, honestly, just, just selfless service and the willing to serve and help other people,” said Pickett, who plays safety. He credits his time thus far in college with helping set the standard on how to step into action when the moment calls for it.
“Especially being here at West Point and part of the Army — that being a part of our ethos and who we are,” he added. “I don’t take it lightly.”
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll commended Pickett Jr. in a social media post, saying he “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.”
The Associated Press contributed.
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