TowBoatUS Honors Four Captains for Saving Lives

At the annual gathering of the TowBoatUS fleet at the TowBoatUS Conference held in Orlando, Florida, company owners, captains and BoatUS staff honored four captains who selflessly acted to provide lifesaving assistance in 2025. Of the awards, the highest honor is the Woody Pollak Award, named after the late Capt. Woody Pollak who died on duty and was known for his unselfish acts.

This year, TowBoatUS awarded one Woody Pollak Award and three Meritorious Service Awards to deserving captains who went above and beyond the call of duty:

• Woody Pollak Award: Capt. Rick Boone, TowBoatUS Lake Allatoona

On a June afternoon, Capt. Rick Boone received a call for assistance from the on-duty manager at one of TowBoatUS Lake Allatoona’s home marinas on the Georgia reservoir. The manager was returning to the marina after servicing a boat club member when he came across a man treading water, far from shore and with no personal floatation device. The man was speaking belligerently and not heeding commands or warnings. Once Capt. Rick arrived, he observed the man was showing signs of extreme fatigue and speaking incoherently, threatening to harm himself. Rick spent time talking with the man and eventually convinced him to get in the boat. When asked about the event, Rick shared, “I feel if I had not gotten out there when I did and was able to talk him into getting into the boat with me that he would have let himself drown in the lake that day.”

• Meritorious Service Award:Captain Ryan Foster, TowBoatUS Palm Beach

In June, Capt. Ryan Foster of TowBoatUS Palm Beach was on patrol in Jupiter, Florida, when he heard a Pan-Pan alert from the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) over the VHF radio. A missing swimmer was reported off Blowing Rocks Preserve, approximately 2 miles north of Jupiter Inlet. Ryan drove toward the inlet, where he found USCG, Florida Fish & Wildlife and Martin County Sheriff officials searching for the swimmer. Taking the weather conditions and current into consideration, Ryan made a judgment call to search north of the beach where the swimmer was last seen. When he arrived one and a half miles north of the search area, Ryan began scanning the water and soon located the swimmer 50 yards north of his towboat. He drove to the swimmer, helped get him aboard his vessel, then safely transferred him to the USCG boat on scene.

• Meritorious Service Award:Captain Michael Tucker, TowBoatUS Lake Texoma

During a storm on Lake Texoma on the Texas-Oklahoma border, four children between the ages of 8 and 16, along with an adult male, were thrown overboard, none of them wearing life jackets. The one teenager who remained on the boat attempted to throw a rope to the others, but it inadvertently got tangled in the propeller, leaving the vessel incapacitated. The teenager called 911, leading to the dispatch of TowBoatUs Lake Texoma. Capt. Michael Tucker and Elie Karam, a representative from Lighthouse Resort & Marina, where the TowBoatUS port is based. Tucker and Karam successfully rescued all five passengers from the water as well as the teenager stranded on the boat.

• Meritorious Service Award:Captain Axson Smith III, TowBoatUS River Forest

Capt. Axson Smith III of TowBoatUS River Forest is credited for the May 2025 rescue of a 69-year-old man who fell off his dinghy in the Pungo River near Belhaven, North Carolina. Smith heard the 911 request for assistance on VHF and drove his towboat 10 miles down the Pungo River, where he eventually spotted a man treading water. With help from a nearby crab fisherman, Smith was able to assist the man, who had likely been treading water for approximately 45 minutes. Aside from exhaustion, the man didn’t have any physical injuries.

These four captains not only showed heroism, but also quick instincts, smart decision-making, and the ability to react calmly in times of emergencies. As the largest network of towing ports, TowBoatUS provides 24-hour on-water assistance for recreational boaters. To learn more about BoatUS Towing Memberships, visit BoatUS.com/Towing. To find a TowBoatUS location near you, visit BoatUS.com/ServiceLocator.