James Lee Wood helped to save James B. Pauwels from drowning, South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January 30, 1977. When James 16, a non-swimmer, was carried away from shore on an ice floe in Lake Michigan, Wood, 21, roofer, attempted in vain to cast a fishing line to the youth, who drifted farther away. In a seven-foot molded plastic dinghy, Wood, who could not swim, rowed in pursuit of James, making his way with difficulty through the ice in the water. Wood reached James about a mile and a half from shore. With James aboard the dinghy, Wood tried without success to row shoreward against the surface current. Wood and James later were taken to shore by a helicopter.
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