Courtesy photo / Hollidaysburg native Peter F. Pontzer was awarded the Carnegie Medal, which is given to those who risk “their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.” Pontzer saved a boy from drowning in North Carolina.

Courtesy photo / Hollidaysburg native Peter F. Pontzer was awarded the Carnegie Medal, which is given to those who risk “their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.” Pontzer saved a boy from drowning in North Carolina.

Powering through choppy waters with a floatation device in hand, a Hollidaysburg native battled injuries and exhaustion while swimming to rescue a teenager struggling off the coast of a North Carolina beach.

For his efforts, Peter F. Pontzer was awarded the Carnegie Medal, which is given to those who risk “their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.”

But Pontzer, 51, said awards were the last thing on his mind that evening. Instead, he was driven by instinct and obligation.

“I don’t know if it was training or what it was, but it needed to be done,” Pontzer said.

Pontzer, who now works as an administrative judge in Fairfax, Va., said he was vacationing with his wife, Margaret, and her parents, Sam and Carolyn Dean of Martinsburg, in Emerald Isle, N.C., at the time of the emergency.

On July 28, 2015, Pontzer was relaxing after a meal, when a relative came to him, saying someone was in trouble on the beach, Pontzer said.

“I hopped up, and I ran down (to the beach),” he said. “I saw someone in trouble out maybe 125 yards from the beach.”

Pontzer said the boy looked like he had been caught in a riptide.

“The waves were rough at that point,” he said, explaining he grabbed a floatation device and began swimming toward the boy.

Along the way, he met another man also attempting to save the boy. His name was Duncan O.C. Harris, 21, and he also was awarded a medal.

“Duncan is a good guy,” Pontzer said, describing the man as a young Marine. “I met him in the water. I never met him before that.”

They eventually found the boy, who was struggling in the water and worked together to get him to the shore, Pontzer said.

“The kid, he’s barely hanging on. He’s got about a minute left. Water is rushing over his face,” Pontzer said.

However, when they arrived on shore, a youth leader who was at the beach with a group of children asked a troubling question.

“He said, ‘What about the other one?'” Pontzer said.

Pontzer said he was exhausted at that point, but he ran back into the water to help a second struggling boy.

While running, Pontzer broke bones in his foot, but he ignored the injury while attempting the second rescue.

Pontzer lost sight of the boy, and when paramedics arrived and later pulled the boy from the water, he did not recover.

“I was glad that we could get the first boy. I was really, really upset that I couldn’t get to the second one,” Pontzer said. “I’m still upset now when I think about it.”

In addition to the emotional toll, Pontzer said he was physically drained.

“I used to be an ultramarathon runner, and I felt like I had just run a 15-miler,”  he said. “Three minutes later, I just collapsed. They thought I was having a heart attack.”

Pontzer was taken to a hospital, where he later recovered.

Pontzer’s parents, Pete and Geraldine, still live in Hollidaysburg, and, this week, his mother said strong swimming skills are a common trait in the Pontzer family.

“When he was younger, he was a lifeguard for the Boy Scouts,” she said of her son.” He did what he was supposed to. He doesn’t brag, though.”

Pontzer, a Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic High School graduate and Army Veteran, said he remains physically active.

Pontzer received the Carnegie Medal on Dec. 21 by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.

“I’m honored,” Pontzer said, still expressing sorrow at being unable to save the second child. “It’s kind of one of those happy-sad things.”

Mirror Staff Writer Sean Sauro is at 946-7535.