By Kara Spak
The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — Sixteen months ago, Chicago Firefighter Brian Otto pulled a 2-year-old strapped in a stroller from the frigid waters of Lake Michigan, a successful rescue mission despite seemingly impossible odds.
On Monday, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds honored Otto by giving him a different view of the lake — one from the fast-moving cockpit of an F-16 Fighting Falcon.
Otto’s mother Trudy Schubert nominated him for the Thunderbird’s “Hometown Hero” contest, where the group takes one deserving community member on a flight before a local air show. The Thunderbirds are performing at this weekend’s Chicago Air and Water Show.
Schubert’s nerves kicked in when she saw her son dressed in a flight suit, walking toward the plane at the Gary/Chicago International Airport.
“Oh my gosh, what have I done?” she said.
Otto was loaded into and walked out of the airplane smiling, giving thumbs up to his wife, Carrie, and 6-year-old son, Devin.
Unlike other civilians who have experienced the ride, he didn’t vomit or pass out despite the 600 mph speed, loops, inversion or pressure more than nine times the force of gravity.
“It was beautiful,” said Otto of the Chicago view from the air. “We passed Soldier Field, a couple of people were sitting at Wrigley.”
Pre-flight, Otto said it was overwhelming to be singled out.
Otto was a member of the Chicago Fire Department Air Sea Rescue team that pulled Lazar Ognjenovic, then 2, from Belmont Harbor last year. A gust of wind pushed the boy, strapped into his stroller, into the harbor. He was submerged in the 42-degree water for about 15 minutes.
Despite murky conditions, Otto found Lazar and the stroller. The boy suffered no long-term impairment after being hospitalized for months.
“There were 40 guys out there that day who deserve to be here today,” Otto said. “The first thing they teach you at the fire academy is that you are no longer an individual, you are part of a team.”
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