Hershal B. Sargent, 87, of Gahanna, Ohio, died Dec. 20, 2015. Sargent was one of five men who were each awarded the medal in 1967 for their heroic actions of July 3, 1966, at a sewage treatment plant in Columbus, Ohio. After a plant attendant was overcome in an eight-foot-deep pit containing sludge, a plant operator entered the oxygen-deficient pit in a rescue attempt but was also overcome. Sargent, then 38, another plant attendant, was summoned, and he too entered the pit, twice, in successful efforts to rescue the plant operator. The original victim was removed by the arriving rescue squad. Sargent was a U.S. Navy veteran, having served during World War II.