Nash County Captain Allen Wilson said he was enjoying a day at Atlantic Beach Sunday when he noticed several kids and one of them was drifting from shore.
She was on a float, but a wave knocked her off. She tried to swim to it, but couldn't reach it.
Wilson said he quickly grabbed a boogie board and a pool noodle and ran into the ocean to help her.
"Got close and asked her if she could swim and she was panicking, you could tell she was panicking," Wilson said. "By this time I was already getting pretty exhausted so I knew if we could just get enough, maybe one of the waves would pick us up and bring us. And it did, thank the Lord, we were able to get a little closer and a little closer."
Officials said both of them made it to shore safely.
Wilson said he is getting a lot of praise for his heroism, but he is deflecting that to someone else.
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"It's not about me, I'll be the first to tell you," Wilson said. "God, I believe, placed me there and he gave me the tools to use to go get this young girl."
Wilson said on a good day, he can barely swim the length of a pool, yet the girl was about 100-yards from shore.
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