JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — A mother and daughter are being hailed as heroes after jumping into rough waters to try and rescue people at a Pensacola-area beach.
Dee Vallee and her 15-year-old daughter Brin are from Johns Creek, Georgia, and were in Florida when their beach vacation turned into a family memory of risk, bravery and unity.
It was a visit meant to reunite with family in the area. They started the day seeing the Blue Angels practice and had originally delayed their beach outing. Finally, around noon, they packed up and hit the sand.
"We lay everything out because my brother was there with his wife and granddaughter," Dee said. "We were just enjoying the day."
It was six of them there, with the youngest beachgoer among them just 2-years-old. Dee described the rough surf and red flags flapping in the wind, marking the risky swimming conditions.
The two had visited Pensacola before. However, during this trip, the aggressive waves had been relentless.
"This is the first time we've been where the waves have been so angry every single day," Dee described. "Usually when we go, they're pretty flat."
With the rough surf, the family chose to enjoy the beach with games, photos and frolicking in ankle-high water. It was around 2 p.m. when the tension on the beach started to rise with the waves.
"I was putting my phone down and I heard there were these two boys to the left of us in the water, probably thigh-high water and they had boogie boards in their hands," Dee said. "And I heard one of them say the word lifeguard."
Dee said that was her indicator that something was wrong -- she said she didn't hear anyone call for help.
A risky rescue
"I saw people pointing on the beach, I thought it was like a shark or something," Brin said. "There's people out there and they need help."
Brin jumped into action.
A trained lifeguard, she said she saw two boys struggling to swim, she then ran off the shore and into the water.
"I just swam as fast as I could to the one who is closest to me at the time, which I couldn't touch," the teen explained. "The waves were knocking me over so I just got to the boy that I could first."
Her mom followed right after working to barrel through the water like a bullet without a target, hoping to come across one of the people desperate for help.
"I saw a lady and she was so tired she almost whispered the word 'help,"' Dee said.
As she helped the woman grab onto her bodyboard, she spotted someone else: the man she now knows as the beloved Georgia coach Chuck Johnson.
"I did everything I could to try to put his hands up on the top of the boogie board because I couldn't lift him. I thought if I could just stretch his arms over the top of the board, then that would try to keep the water out of his face," she said.
"But the waves kept hitting and crashing."
Dee realized she couldn't carry two people back to shore.
"One person on a boogie board is one thing, three people on a boogie board, you kind of aren't moving anywhere," she said.
She begged the woman to kick, to work past her exhaustion to try and help Johnson too.
"I couldn't even see the sand from how far out we were," Dee explained.
Thankfully, more help came. Another man started to help Dee and get Johnson on one of the bodyboards he brought out. When that failed, he called for reinforcements on a jet ski -- which helped pull Johnson onto a board and back to the shoreline.
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Dee passed along the woman to the rescuers and then started to swim back herself. That's when she spotted her daughter back on shore, noting that Johnson and others were receiving medical attention. Several people were working to perform CPR.
The vacation beach crowd suddenly had a cloud of concern over them.
Back at the beach
Putting her lifeguard training to work, Brin treaded water all the way back, carrying the boy over her shoulder and maneuvering in the water to make sure they both could time their breathing before another wave would crash over them.
"I remember screaming to the people on the shore 'someone give me a boogie board,'" she recounted.
After someone tossed her a paddleboard, she knew they would be OK. Brin managed to pull the boy back to the beach before rescuers got to her.
Dee said one of the people helping was a security guard from one of the buildings nearby. It was his first day of work, but he didn't hesitate to help, Dee said.
As people worked to care for the tired, Dee took a moment to take pride in her daughter.
"I mean, she didn't even think twice," she said. "I'm so proud of her and especially to see how tiny she is. She's definitely the smallest (who) went out in the ocean and she's the one that pulled someone to shore and saved (their) life."
Brin said she was grateful she could actually help. Though everyone made it out of the water, she said, not everyone managed to reunite with their families.
"I feel terrible for all the ones who lost all their loved ones," she said. "I'm sure they're going through a very difficult time right now."
Dee also shared her heart break for the families involved, saying they are praying for all involved.
A message from the heroes
Dee praised her daughter's lifeguard training. A pharmacist at Kroger herself, the mother is also required to be certified in CPR. She said her message to others now is to take the extra time and training to be able to learn a life-saving skill.
"When you actually put your hands on a human being, it kind of changes the way you think of things," she said.
She teared up at her message, thinking of Johnson.
"It's hard to know that I did the best I could," she said. "He didn't make it."
Yet, Johnson is a reminder of the true nature of people, she said.
"Made me know that there is still humanity in life," she said. "Both had lines of people, total strangers, lined up to give," she added about those who needed CPR on the shore.
Though there were multiple people that needed help, either in the water or on the sand, people were there to offer it. Dee said an ICU nurse even had an I.V. bag going and coached people on how to help.
"In a horrific situation," she said. "People still care."
That's all the mother and daughter want people to know: that it's important to care -- and just as important to show it when it counts.