Horace Raymond Greeley saved John Giampapa from drowning, Garvey, California, October 18, 1936. While playing in the dry bed of the flood-control channel of the Alhambra Wash, John, 8, was overtaken by a sudden rush of water two and a half to three feet deep. Holding to a sawhorse, he drifted in a current of six and a half m.p.h. The channel was 50 feet wide and had a concrete bottom and walls that were vertical and 13.5 feet high. Greeley, 19, student, jumped from the top of the wall into the channel, in which logs and other debris drifted, and took hold of John. He was unable to stand; and after drifting 100 feet, he told John to release the sawhorse and take hold of him. John threw one arm around Greeley’s neck, and Greeley pressed his feet against bottom to retard his speed and stroked but could not get closer to the wall. A rope thrown toward them fell short. At a curve they were swept close to the wall, and Greeley took hold of barbed wire that was lodged against it, but his fingers were cut, and he released the wire. They drifted nearly one mile to the end of the wall, beyond which the water was deeper. There a man who had a rope tied around his waist waded from the bank and grasped Greeley, as the two drifted to him. The man was swept from his feet, but Greeley took hold of him, and all were pulled to the bank.
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