Tomorrow’s soldiers are today’s saviors. When a fun weekend out on a river turned sour, five Sacramento State ROTC cadets saved a life.

The cadets were at the Feather River outside of Nicolaus, Calif., on Aug. 30, when they rescued Rebecca Lita, 16, from drowning. While they were able to save her, they were not able to save her brother, Alexcsandru “Alex” Lita, 25, who was also attempting to rescue his sister.

Leon Adams, Emmanuel Batara, Richard Casavecchia, Jeremiah Jones and Sean Peloquin were awarded Commander’s Coins on Sept. 11, for their efforts and bravery from Col. Scott Donaldson, brigade commander for the Army ROTC Western Region.

They have also been nominated for a national award, the ROTC Medal for Heroism, by their battalion commander, Lt. Col. Aaron Metz. They will be notified if cadets were approved or denied within upcoming weeks.

“I’m surprised they had the opportunity; they were just out on a weekend to have fun, then they had to apply the training that they’d received in the ROTC program,” said Sgt.1st Class Gerardo Ramon, detachment non-commissioned officer in charge. “The most rewarding thing is that they actually applied what they learned here, and they were able to save a life.”

While the five young men were getting settled near the banks of Feather River, they noticed some trouble a little way down the river.

“We were setting up camp when I noticed the girl floating down the river,” Casavecchia said.

Casavecchia said he called out twice before Rebecca Lita responded that she needed help. Once they realized the severity of the situation, the five cadets sprinted toward the her.

“I saw she was floating, struggling. I didn’t really think about it; we all just jumped. Sean and I got to the girl. She calmed down a little bit once we grabbed her and set her on a raft,” Casavecchia said. “She told us to get her brother.”

Feeling desperate and responding to the urgency and intensity of the situation, he had gone into the water in an attempt to save his sister. Unfortunately, he did not know how to swim and was rapidly pulled under by a strong current.

“We saw the brother when he was standing on the sand bar, but we didn’t see him go into the water,” said Adams.

The cadets tried their hardest to find and recover him. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful at finding the young man. The team tried for about 30 minutes to find Alex Lita’s body until authorities arrived and relieved them. His body was recovered the following day by a rescue squad.

“Overall, I think that they did an outstanding job. They did a good job staying in control of the situation,” Ramon said. “They did manage to save one life, and they kept everything under control as they were looking for the other until rescuers arrived.”

They are cadets, and they are people. They acted not only because they were trained to act, but because they felt compelled by compassion.

“It’s just what we do. We knew what we had to do, so we did it. Human decency would dictate that you’d try to help, or at least call 911,” Adams said. “There were people who were right there in their boat, fishing. They didn’t do anything – they just kept on fishing.”

“They were on the other side of the river, about 20 meters away from her, and they were just quiet,” Casavecchia said.

Though they did realize the gravity and importance of reacting in that situation, the cadets do not feel as though they did anything out of the ordinary to receive the attention and honors. The cadets were unsettled by the thought that anyone who could help simply chose not to.

“It doesn’t feel like it’s that big of a deal. If you have the ability to act, you should,” Peloquin said. “(The awards) are unexpected. To be honest, it’s really nothing. We acted because it was the right thing to do. I’d rather do it to help somebody than try to get glory out of it.”

While they’ve received much positive attention, not everyone’s reactions were quite as optimistic. Initially, the affected family seemed to have expected more from the five young men.

“When I met the family, it was a sobering moment. In the heat of everything, they were really emotional. They felt we didn’t act quickly enough, but we were about 200 to 300 yards away. I really would have liked to have gotten the brother,” Peloquin said.

Ana Negruser, sister of Rebecca and Alex Lita, said the family now understands that the cadets did everything they could to save Alex and appreciates their efforts.

“If it wasn’t for them, Rebecca wouldn’t have made it,” Negruser said. “Even if Alex was beyond help, they still got Rebecca who couldn’t have held on for much longer, and now she’s still here with the family. I really think that they should get that award.”

Negruser said she is also frustrated that other people were on the bank watched what happened from the bank and did nothing to help. When the family went back to the river a few days later to lay flowers on the bank they ran into a fisherman who saw what happened, she said. The man described watching Alex run into the water and then flail and go under, not returning to the surface. He did nothing to help, Negruser said.

“When we were there, at first I just felt really frustrated and irritated. I wouldn’t be able to do that. I couldn’t just stand there and watch someone drown and not do anything at all,” Nagruser said. “I mean, I don’t hate them, but the thought’s still there: What if they would have done something?”

Batara said there are a lot of misconceptions about the ROTC training cadets receive.

“People think we are just trained to kill people,” he said. “But here, just over a casual weekend, we were able to use our ROTC training to save a life.”

Joni Hazard can be reached at [email protected]