A military veteran who served in Iraq is being praised as a king after last week’s heroic acts in downtown Atlanta during the flood.
Florida natives George Brathwaite and his wife, Chyna on the way to help retrieve their daughter and grandchild when they noticed a woman stranded on top of her car.
George told Atlanta Black Star that the terrifying rescue has now triggered his PTSD, but he would do it all again because “I was raised right.”
George and Chyna first noticed a woman standing on top of her car on the Downtown Connector near Baker Street along Interstate 75/85.
The vehicle was trapped in the floodwaters and stuck in the middle of the road.
“You gon’ help her, bae?” said Chyna in a viral video shared on her Instagram page.
Another viral angle shows the white car surrounded by a large body of muddy water.
“What you want me to do?” said Brathwaite. “Get out and walk across the street and put her on my back?”
His wife replied, “Yup, you’re a veteran. Go help her.”
It was far from a typical day, as the couple was trying to get family members to safety.
George and Chyna were stranded, hitting detours and roadblocks when they came across the woman on top of the car.
At his wife’s request, the former serviceman parked along the median and walked the road, which was submerged by water, to get her.
He stepped into the brown water, wearing a black shirt, camouflage pants, and white sneakers.
The woman made it safely out of the water after George literally put her on his back and carried her out to safety.
He and his wife requested to withhold the woman’s name for privacy reasons, who they now embrace as their family, George tells ABS.
“She’s not just a girl, she’s definitely family at this point,” he explained. “We can’t wait to actually sit down and meet her folks there. You know, just show them love and break bread for real. But um, she just, she not just the girl.”
“We call her sis,” added Chyna.
When asked if the flood rescue triggered his PTSD, George admitted he still struggles to explain the emotions tied to the ordeal. He also said being called a “hero” does not feel right to him.
“I don’t feel like a hero,” he shared. “I was just doing what I was supposed to do, what my wife told me to do. I feel like, I was at the right place at the time.”
George credits his instincts more than the combat training he received in the military, saying being raised around 12 aunts taught him just as much.
“It’s got to be in you from the jump,” he added.
This background added to the slight tension that he was the only one who helped the woman reach safety.
“When we pulled over, people blowing at us like, like we were in the wrong [for] trying to see about somebody, you know?” says George.
“Just seeing the people pass this woman that needed some help is something that really, really plays over and over in my head. And that really bothers me to the point where like I got PTSD and that’s definitely something that I really, really, really, really wish that people would — like somebody way before for me—would have stopped to help them.”
He completed two missions in Iraq and moved to Atlanta for a fresh start, where he met his now-wife.
George and Chyna began dating in 2014, and five years later, they were married.
After the video was shared on Instagram, folks congratulated the couple for stopping to help the stranded woman.
“Can you imagine how scared this young lady was. Thank you for your service,” wrote one.
Another user replied, “Salute and much respect.”
One user joked about the veteran’s hesitation due to his new sneakers.
“The crazy part is …he is not worried about drowning or what’s in the water lol them new shoes make him hesitate lol, the sneakers are at risk.”
Another fan suggested that Nike gift him a new pair of shoes. “@nike or someone needs to gift that hero some new shoes!”
George won’t have to worry as his wife Chyna, has kept her promise and replaced his white shoes. She encouraged people inspired by their story to “listen” to their partners.
“Even if you feel like what your partner says may be wrong or just not something that you would want to do or would see yourself doing. ometimes you got to step out the box and just do it,” Chyna explained.
“That’s what you married that person for. It’s a partnership. You’ve got to take a risk with your partner because you never know what’ll come out of it.
George completed one tour in Iraq while serving in the military between 2009 and 2013.
He and Chyna have been together since 2014. Both had moved from Florida at different times but met at a local store in Atlanta that year. They became inseparable before getting married in November 2019.