Ronald Reagan’s 1982 SOTU: Lenny Skutnick
Lenny Skutnick was a CBO assistant when Air Florida Flight 90 went down in the Potomac River in Jan. 1982. Skutnick saved the life of a crash victim and was invited to attend Reagan’s first SOTU. “We saw the heroism of one of our young government employees, Lenny Skutnik, who, when he saw a woman lose her grip on the helicopter line, dived into the water and dragged her to safety,” Reagan said in this SOTU; Skutnik received a standing ovation. Since then, other ordinary Americans invited into the presidential gallery and honored during the SOTU have been known among the Washington press corps as “Lenny Skutniks.”
