Port Arthur — The nation’s highest civilian award for heroism, the Carnegie Medal, is going to a man who died trying to save a fisherman who ended up drowning in a Port Arthur waterway.
Rolando Rene Cabellero, 70, died in 2021 while trying to rescue a man who fell into the fast-moving waters of a channel connecting Keith Lake with the Intracoastal Waterway.
Carnegie Hero Fund:
Halil Cakmaktas, 70, was fishing from a narrow, concrete pier near a channel connecting Keith Lake to the Port Arthur Ship Canal in Port Arthur, Texas, on July 21, 2021, when he fell into the fast-moving water. Crane operator Rolando Rene Caballero, 63, from Port Arthur, was baiting crabs on the shore near the pier with his wife when she heard Cakmaktas call out for help. Caballero instructed his wife to retrieve a bundle of rope from their car. She retrieved the rope and Caballero moved onto the pier where he attempted to throw one end of it to Cakmaktas. After several unsuccessful attempts, Caballero returned to his wife on shore and tied the rope around his waist. He waded about 10 feet into the water before swimming about 40 feet toward Cakmaktas. Caballero was within an arm’s length of Cakmaktas when Cakmaktas submerged and could not be located. Caballero shouted to his wife to pull him back to shore. She pulled the rope, but soon realized it had come untethered from Caballero.
Caballero’s wife could still see him and called out instructions to him to lay on his back and attempt to float. The strength of the current pulled Caballero underwater. Firefighters located Caballero’s body about 30 minutes after he submerged. He had drowned. Cakmaktas’ body was recovered by police about an hour after he submerged. He, too, had drowned.
18 WILL RECEIVE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXTRAORDINARY ACTS OF HEROISM
The Carnegie Hero Fund is honored to recognize 18 individuals, including four women who saved their friend from an attacking cougar, five members of law enforcement, and a physician and a pastor who rushed and tackled a shooter who opened fire in the social hall of a church occupied by at least 45 people.
All the men and women recognized today, in acts of extraordinary heroism, risked serious injury or death to save others. This is the Hero Fund’s second award announcement for 2024. Each individual will receive the Carnegie Medal, North America’s highest honor for civilian heroism. Other rescuers this quarter include two plumbers who died attempting to save two young family members who fell through thin ice covering Humboldt Lake in Saskatchewan, a veterinary nurse who pulled a 14-year-old from rough water in Lake Michigan, and a 26-year-old man who chased off assailants who were holding a man at gunpoint in Washington, DC.
The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the U.S. and Canada to those who enter extreme danger while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. With this announcement, the Carnegie Medal has been awarded to 10,440 individuals since the inception of the Pittsburgh-based Fund in 1904. Each of the recipients or their survivors will receive a financial grant. Throughout the 120 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, nearly $45 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance.
The recipients are:
Daniel Rose Sterling Heights, Michigan Billy Chang Taipei City, Taiwan
David Chapman Detroit Rolando Rene Caballero* Port Arthur, Texas
Antwaun M. Jackson* Jacksonville, North Carolina Christopher Bischoff Kenosha, Wisconsin
Christopher Novecosky* Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Kelsey Schwuchow Kenosha Wisconsin
Joseph Novecosky* Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Daniel L. Weiss Stokesdale, North Carolina
John Parks Washington, District of Columbia Annie Bilotta Seattle
Sara Schaller Hammond, Indiana Tisch Schmidt-Williams North Bend, Washington
Kevin James Schell* Bracebridge, Ontario Aune Tietz Seattle
John Cheng* Laguna Nigel, California Erica Wolf Seattle
*deceased
Rolando Rene Caballero was born on August 12, 1957, in Laredo, Texas to parents Ricardo Oscar (Dickey) Caballero and Ethelina Gloria Lopez. He attended Mary Carroll High School in Corpus Christi, Texas. He moved on to \