Well, there's one guy who set out to prove all those people wrong: Lenny Skutnik.
He was the epitome of a hero when he saved someone in the icy Potomac river.
On January 13, 1982 Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th street bridge in Washington D.C. where one passenger was too weak to grab the rescue line dropped from a helicopter. Skutnik decided to jump in.
The distribution assistant swam 30 feet in short sleeves and managed to save Priscilla Tirado. It got him invited to the 1982 State of the Union address where he sat next to First Lady Nancy Reagan. He even managed a shout out from the president himself.
