Army Pvt. Matthew Cole, center, poses July 5, 2023, at Fort Moore, Ga., with Maj. Gen. Curtis Buzzard, left, commander of the Maneuver Center of Excellence, and Col. Jimmy Hathaway, commander of the 198th Infantry Brigade. (Zachary Harris)
ATLANTA — Army Pvt. Matthew Cole said he anticipated what was about to happen when he heard an alarm and noticed two people relaxing on a small island in the Chattahoochee River.
A young girl and her father were about to get caught in rising river water in downtown Columbus after a nearby dam was opened, and the Fort Moore infantry trainee sprang to action, officials at the Georgia Army post said.
“I saw what was going to happen before it happened,” Cole said. “They were wading across the water, and it was rising too high. I started running before they even got stuck and started going under the water.”
Cole was credited with saving both of their lives after jumping into the rising river adjacent to the city’s River Walk on Memorial Day to grab the 3-year-old girl and swim her safely to shore. Cole’s actions allowed the father to swim to shore, as well.
Cole was walking along the River Walk with his family while celebrating his recent completion of the Basic Combat Training portion of Fort Moore’s Infantry One Station Unit Training course, when he saw the pair eating lunch on an exposed piece of land in the middle of the river, according to Fort Moore, formerly Fort Benning. When Cole heard alarms go off to indicate the dam just north of downtown had been opened, he was immediately concerned, he said.
When he saw the rising waters pulling the pair downstream, he took off and jumped into the river.
“The dad was holding his little girl up,” Cole said. “I grabbed her and then swam down to the riverbank and got her out.”
Cole of Martinsburg, W.Va., was recently recommended for an Army award and is expected also to receive an honor from local authorities for his lifesaving actions that day, Fort Moore spokesman Zach Harris said Wednesday.
Local authorities were called as Cole rescued the girl. John Shull, a division chief and fire marshal with the Columbus fire department, said the Chattahoochee River, which separates Georgia and Alabama near Columbus and Fort Moore, rises rapidly when the dam is opened. He said incidents in the river happen occasionally.
“We typically have at least one person every year that drowns in the Chattahoochee River,” Shull said in a Fort Moore news release about the incident. “It’s a very treacherous river — very dangerous.”
Cole, who is assigned to Echo Company, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment of the 198th Infantry Brigade, is expected to graduate Aug. 25 from One Station Unit Training — the Army’s 22-week initial entrance training for all recruits bound for the infantry, Harris said.
“We’re so glad that Pvt. Matthew Cole was there that day,” Shull said. “I have every reason to believe that he made a tremendous impact, and there’s a very strong possibility that the 3-year-old and the father would not be there today if it wasn’t for the brave acts of Pvt. Cole.”
