Carnegie Medal for civilian heroism awarded to 22 in U.S., Canada

Posted on by Carnegie Hero Fund

PITTSBURGH, PA, March 26, 2014—In its first award announcement of 2014, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission today named 22 individuals as recipients of the CARNEGIE MEDAL. The medal is given throughout the United States and Canada to those who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. Five of the heroes lost their lives in the performance of their lifesaving acts.

The heroes announced today bring to 9,675 the total number of awards made since the Pittsburgh-based Fund’s inception in 1904. Commission Chair Mark Laskow stated that each of the awardees or their survivors will also receive a financial grant. Throughout the 110 years since the Fund was established by industrialist philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, $36 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance.

The awardees are:

Resumes of the acts follow. To nominate someone for the CARNEGIE MEDAL, write the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, 436 Seventh Avenue, Suite 1101, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, or call 1-800-447-8900 (toll free). Fuller information on the CARNEGIE MEDAL and the history of the CARNEGIE HERO FUND COMMISSION can be found at www.carnegiehero.org


LINCOLN LEMERE
Pflugerville, Texas
ARCHIE JORDY
Round Rock, Texas
Lincoln LeMere and Archie Jordy attempted to rescue Jaime Padron from assault, Austin, Texas, April 6, 2012. Padron, 40, a police officer, tackled a suspected shoplifter who was fleeing from a store. In a brief struggle, the suspect produced a semiautomatic handgun and shot Padron twice. Store employees LeMere, 35, retail manager, and Jordy, 42, assistant retail manager, had been following Padron in his pursuit of the suspect, and they continued toward him after the shots were fired. Reaching Padron, LeMere placed a knee into the assailant’s side and pushed his shoulders and chest to the floor. Jordy then grasped the assailant’s gun hand to disarm him. The gun discharged a third time, the bullet striking the store ceiling. As LeMere continued to hold the assailant down, Jordy forced the assailant’s gun hand to the floor and, stepping on it, removed the weapon from his grasp and slid it away. He then called for assistance over Padron’s radio and with LeMere continued to restrain the assailant until police arrived shortly and arrested him. Padron died of a gunshot wound to his neck.
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KYLE ROBERT HARDMAN, deceased
Barbourville, Kentucky
JARVISE SHELTON
Villa Ridge, Illinois
Kyle Robert Hardman died attempting to save Hanh Nguyen and others from drowning, Sauget, Illinois, June 12, 2012, and Jarvise Shelton helped in the attempt. Nguyen, 33; two other men; and two young children were occupants of a 16-foot motorboat that became disabled on the Mississippi River. The boat was pulled by a swift current to a stationary fleet of barges, where it struck one of the barges and became lodged against it. A towboat was in the vicinity, and its crew, including Hardman, 55, and Shelton, 39, deckhands, became aware of the situation. Hardman and Shelton launched their boat’s rigid-inflatable emergency vessel and took it to a point near the stranded motorboat. As Shelton maneuvered the rescue boat, Hardman threw the free end of a line toward the stranded victims, but to no effect. Although Shelton worked to control the rescue boat, the current pushed it against the barges, and it capsized, throwing him and Hardman into the river. Hardman was pulled beneath the barges and swept downstream, where he surfaced, inert, and Shelton was able to climb atop the capsized rescue boat. Crewmembers of an arriving tugboat took both men aboard before going onto the barges to assist in the rescue of Nguyen and the others. Neither Shelton nor any of the occupants of the disabled boat was injured, but Hardman could not be revived, as he had drowned.
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KEITH G. SMEDEMA
Indianapolis, Indiana
Keith G. Smedema saved a woman from drowning, Indianapolis, Indiana, February 7, 2013. Smedema, 53, air traffic control instructor, was bicycling along the bank of the White River when he became aware of a woman floundering in the river at a point about 150 feet from that bank. He went onto a bridge at the scene to a point above the woman and ascertained that she needed help. Directing others to call 911, Smedema climbed over the bridge railing and, fully clothed, jumped 30 feet into the river, despite not knowing its depth there. The 47- degree water momentarily taking his breath away, Smedema swam to the woman, grasped her, and then found that they were in water about four feet deep. As the nearer bank comprised a wall that was inaccessible, Smedema secured his footing and held to the woman until firefighters responded in a rescue boat from the opposite bank several minutes later. Firefighters took Smedema and the woman to the bank, and each was taken by ambulance to a hospital. Smedema was cold, numbed, and bruised, but he fully recovered.
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KENO GOODE, SR.
San Carlos, Arizona
Keno Goode, Sr., helped to save a girl from drowning, San Carlos, Arizona, September 4, 2012. A young girl stood crying in Sevenmile Wash, stranded by rising water after heavy rain. At the scene to observe water conditions, Goode, 62, a retired firefighter whose health required him to use crutches, saw her and, abandoning his crutches, entered the wash for her. He lost his footing in the cold, swift water but managed to reach the girl and secure her in wadable water at a point about 60 feet from the closer bank. A police officer and firefighters responded. Secured by a line tied to him, the officer entered the water 90 feet upstream of Goode and made his way to a tree in the wash. He tied off at the tree and then proceeded to Goode and the girl, as did other men. Using the secured lines, the men removed the girl and then Goode from the wash and to safety. The girl and Goode were examined by emergency medical personnel at the scene, and Goode was taken to the hospital for further examination.
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CHRISTOPHER ALLEN STALEY, deceased
Newburg, Maryland
Christopher Allen Staley died attempting to save Christopher J. Kelly from drowning, Mechanicsville, Maryland, August 6, 2011. Kelly, 24, jumped into the Wicomico River from a pier that extended 600 feet from the bank and struggled to stay afloat in the choppy water. His friend, Staley, 22, landscaper, and others were on the pier. Staley jumped into the water for Kelly, but he submerged, as did Kelly, and did not surface. Others jumped into the water for the men, but their rescue efforts were not successful. Divers recovered Kelly and Staley from the river several hours later. Both had drowned.
85700-9660
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JUSTIN TAK CHAN, deceased
Burnaby, British Columbia
Justin Tak Chan died attempting to save Amy Wong from drowning, Whistler, British Columbia, August 6, 2011. Wong, 31, was fly-fishing in the Cheakamus River when she lost her footing, fell, and was moved downstream, her hip waders filling with water. Her friend, Chan, 34, software engineer, was fishing closer to the bank. Also wearing hip waders, he immediately jumped into the deeper pool of water between him and Wong, swam across it, and made his way to her. Chan cradled Wong but did not regain his footing as both were carried downstream. Chan was found an hour later at a point about 2,000 feet downstream. He had drowned. Wong was not found.
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MICHAEL JEROME CADE
Enid, Oklahoma
HENRY MCHENRY
Houston, Texas
Michael Jerome Cade rescued a woman from assault, and Henry McHenry rescued Cade, Houston, Texas, May 17, 2013. A 26-year-old woman screamed for help after a man broke into the shop where she worked and, at gunpoint, dragged her outside and forced her into his pickup truck. A patron of the barbershop two doors away, Cade, 45, vocational rehabilitative specialist, witnessed the attack. He left the shop, approached the assailant at the driver’s side of the truck, and pushed him away. A struggle between the men ensued, during which the assailant pointed the gun at Cade and fired twice, grazing his scalp. As Cade and the assailant continued to fight for control of the gun, going to the pavement at the rear of the truck, the woman fled the vehicle to safety. McHenry, 39, barber, also left the shop and approached the assailant. He applied a chokehold to the assailant, allowing Cade to remove the gun from the immediate scene, and held the assailant to the pavement until police arrived and arrested him. The woman sustained minor injuries, as did McHenry, and Cade required hospital treatment for gunshot wounds, fractures, and lacerations. He recovered.
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STEVEN L. ROGGE
Farmington, New Mexico
Steven L. Rogge saved a boy from drowning, Farmington, New Mexico, April 14, 2013. A 12-year-old boy was wading along the bank of the Animas River when he slipped, fell, and was swept over a two-foot drop into a 12- foot-deep pool of water just below the drop, where he submerged. In another party at the scene, Rogge, 40, technician, ran along the bank of the river to a point opposite of where the boy was last seen. He dived into the river, swam about 30 feet, and submerged twice before finding the boy. Grasping the boy, Rogge pushed off the bottom of the river and surfaced with him. Maintaining his hold of him, Rogge let the river carry them about 100 feet downstream to shallower water. He stood there and assisted the boy from the river. The boy was treated at the scene for a cut on his foot, and Rogge fractured a toe and sustained cuts and bruises to his legs. He fully recovered.
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EDWARD J. GARLINGHOUSE, deceased
Boynton Beach, Florida
Edward J. Garlinghouse died after helping to save Kimberly Waldridge and Jasmine Chapman from drowning, Palm Beach Shores, Florida, February 9, 2013. Kimberly and Jasmine, both 10, were playing near the waterline at an Atlantic Ocean beach when a breaker took them into the surf, and a strong current carried them farther out. From nearby, Jasmine’s father and two other men, including Garlinghouse, 44, carpenter, immediately ran into the water and swam out to the girls, reaching them at a point about 150 feet from shore. Although the men tried to swim back to shore with the girls, the current took them to a point about 300 feet out, where water was about 30 feet deep. As they trod water, the men rotated the girls among them, giving each man a chance to rest. A boater who had been alerted from nearby responded after several minutes and took Kimberly and the other man aboard, and a police boat that arrived shortly rescued Jasmine and her father. Garlinghouse submerged about then and did not resurface. The boats made several passes to locate him but were unsuccessful, and the search was continued by other responding units. Jasmine, her father, Kimberly, and the other man were returned to shore, where they were examined by paramedics. Garlinghouse was not found.
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DREW JAMES LOFTUS
San Diego, California
AUSTIN JEFFREY MANN
Carlsbad, California
Drew James Loftus and Austin Jeffrey Mann saved Lynn E. Sauer from being struck by highway traffic, Encinitas, California, March 3, 2013. After a vehicular accident on an interstate highway at night, Sauer, 63, was trapped in her van, which had overturned onto its driver’s side across one of the four lanes of travel. Loftus, 22, security guard, was the passenger in an approaching vehicle driven by Mann, 23, research analyst, that swerved to avoid the van. Stopping at the scene, he and Mann responded to the van. Learning that it was occupied, Loftus mounted the passenger side and opened its front door as Mann went to the side of the van that faced oncoming traffic and used the light of his cellular telephone to alert approaching motorists. Loftus reached through the opened door, grasped Sauer, and pulled her from the vehicle. He then lowered her to Mann, on the highway, on which the speed limit was 65 m.p.h., and then ran with them to safety on the nearer shoulder. Moments later, the van was struck by an automobile, and both vehicles burst into flame, the van coming to rest atop the hood of the automobile. Loftus and Mann ran to the driver’s side of the automobile, where Mann pulled the driver through the opened driver’s door. They returned to the shoulder with her as flames on both vehicles grew. Sauer suffered injury to her neck, and she recovered.
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BRIAN PATRICK JOYCE
STEVEN EDWARD JOYCE, JR.
Littleton, Massachusetts
Brian Patrick Joyce and Steven Edward Joyce, Jr., saved Erin E. Brogan and David T. Yahoodik from burning, Newton, Massachusetts, July 28, 2012. Brogan and Yahoodik, both 25, were occupants of a sport utility vehicle that, in an interstate highway accident at night, struck a concrete barrier and, overturning onto its passenger side, came to rest on the highway. Flames broke out at the front of the vehicle. Brothers Brian, 21, and Steven, 23, landscapers, and their family, approaching in another vehicle, stopped at the scene. Brian and Steven immediately ran to the burning vehicle, where Brian attempted to open its driver’s door. Unsuccessful, he opened the rear door on that side of the vehicle and then extended his upper body inside through it. As he moved the headrest from the driver’s seat to give the victims more room to maneuver, Steven, at the rear of the vehicle, opened its hatch door and entered. He reclined the back seat and then, taking Brogan by the arm as Brian guided from the door opening, removed her through the back of the vehicle. Yahoodik followed them. Just after they retreated to safety, a passing vehicle struck the burning one, knocking off its hatch door, and flames soon grew to engulf the vehicle. Yahoodik and Brogan were taken to the hospital for treatment of their injuries.
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KURT T. BUCHLER
Sanatoga, Pennsylvania
Kurt T. Buchler rescued Kaitlyn M. Fadely from attacking dogs, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, March 15, 2013. Arriving to visit at a private residence, Fadely, 19, was attacked by three dogs, whose weights ranged from 80 to 100 pounds. The dogs dragged her to a point beside a four-foot-high fence along the front yard and mauled her. Buchler, 44, bartender, was about to enter his car in a parking lot about 350 feet away when he heard Fadely’s screams. Running to the scene, he saw the attack. Buchler went to the opposite side of the fence at Fadely’s position and, yelling at the dogs, reached over the fence and punched at them to distract them. The dogs left Fadely and turned on Buchler, chasing him into the street. Realizing that he could not outrun them, Buchler turned and fought against them, kicking and punching, when they attacked him. Fadely, meanwhile, was helped to safety inside the residence. A passing motorist witnessed the attack and used her vehicle to stop it, and then she tended to Buchler’s injuries. Both Fadely and Buchler required hospitalization for treatment of severe bite wounds. Buchler was detained for six days, and he missed three months’ work.
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VIRGINIA R. GROGAN, deceased
Gloucester, Virginia
Virginia R. Grogan died attempting to save Gabriel I., Michael V., and Thomas P. Grogan from burning, Gloucester, Virginia, January 16, 2013. Brothers Gabriel, 6 months; Michael, 2; and Thomas, 7, and their mother were asleep in a second-floor bedroom of their family’s home after fire erupted at night in the living room, which was below the bedroom, on the first floor. The boys’ grandmother, Grogan, 54, college student and retired military officer, alerted the mother to the fire and then with her husband climbed through a window in their bedroom to the roof of the front porch. They went along the roof to a window in the boys’ bedroom, gained access to the room, and pulled the boys’ mother from the house. As Grogan’s husband aided the mother to ground level, Grogan entered the bedroom for the boys. Realizing that she had re-entered the house, her husband called to her and the boys but received no response. Flames grew to engulf and destroy the structure. Firefighters later located the boys in the bedroom and Grogan in the living room, all having succumbed to smoke inhalation.
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MATTHEW P. SCHONS
Tracy, Minnesota
Matthew P. Schons rescued Jadyn B. Haugen from burning, Tracy, Minnesota, September 15, 2012. Jadyn, 2 months, was in a crib in the living room of her family’s one-story house after a large explosion in the house set spot fires throughout the structure and rendered it unstable. A neighbor, Schons, 25, cook, heard the explosion and saw flames and smoke issuing from the scene. He ran to the house and, learning that Jadyn was still inside, entered the living room through the front door. Heat was intense there and smoke, dense, severely restricting visibility and hampering breathing. Despite flames burning throughout the room, Schons moved along its perimeter to search for Jadyn, not knowing her location. Passing within inches of the flames in deteriorating conditions, he found the crib in the far corner of the room. Schons picked Jadyn up and, cradling her in one arm while shielding her face with the other, fled outside to safety. Flames grew quickly to engulf the house. Jadyn required hospitalization for significant burns, and she recovered.
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CHRISTOPHER JON IHLE
Ames, Iowa
Christopher Jon Ihle saved Marion A. and Jean M. Papich from being struck by a train, Ames, Iowa, July 31, 2013. Marion, 84, and his wife, 78, remained in a car that stalled on a railroad track at a crossing. The crossing’s gates, lights, and bells were activated, indicating the approach of a train. Ihle, 38, banker, was in a parking lot near the scene. Having seen the car on the track, he immediately ran to it when he realized that the train was approaching. With the train then about 450 feet away, Ihle pushed on the rear of the car but, having insufficient traction on the paved crossing, could not move it. He then ran around to the front of the vehicle, which was directly atop the track, and, with the train about 300 feet away, pushed it backward, off the track. Ihle moved to the driver’s side of the car just seconds before the front of the train passed, within a few feet. The front of the train reached a point well beyond the crossing before the train stopped.
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ROGER COSTA
Tustin, California
Roger Costa attempted to rescue Maria C.T. Frivaldo from burning, Tustin, California, November 20, 2012. Frivaldo, 56, was trapped on the balcony of her second-floor apartment after fire broke out in the unit’s kitchen and spread, blocking access to its door. She screamed for help as flames issued into the balcony. A resident of the same complex, Costa, 39, warehouse employee, responded to the scene after seeing the fire from his apartment. He climbed to the level of the balcony and, holding to its wooden railing with one hand, reached out for Frivaldo, but she slipped from his grasp. Costa lost his hold of the railing and fell backward to the ground. Frivaldo died in the fire, and Costa required six days’ hospitalization for treatment, including surgery, of burns up to third-degree to a hand and an arm. He retained scarring.
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JASON AUSTIN COLE
Lonoke, Arkansas
Jason Austin Cole saved a boy from drowning, Spirit Lake, Idaho, January 27, 2013. While playing on ice covering Spirit Lake, a boy about 8 broke through thin ice in the vicinity of a highway culvert. Jason, 16, high school student, was watching the boy from a dock about 200 feet away. He ran across the ice toward the boy but also broke through into the frigid water at a point within a few feet of the boy. Jason swam to the boy, submerged, and, pushing off a rock, lifted him onto solid ice. Requiring repeated attempts against ice that broke under his weight, Jason then hoisted himself atop solid ice and with the boy went across the ice to safety. Jason was cold but recovered that evening.
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