Paul Anthony Wilson

Paul Anthony Wilson helped to save Donald W. Moody from drowning, Mon Louis, Alabama, April 12, 1968. When he tried to retrieve a boat which had broken loose from a fixed buoy in Mobile Bay during a squall, Donald, 17, played out and called for help. Paul, 16, schoolboy, dived from the buoy and swam a 190 feet to where Donald then had sunk in water 12 feet deep. After bringing Donald to the surface, Paul started to tow him to the buoy. Donald struggled with Paul, causing them to be submerged briefly three times. Paul then struck Donald with his fist; and thereafter Donald remained inert. With effort because he had to swim against four-foot waves and tidal current, Paul towed Donald to the buoy. He grasped a piling and supported Donald at the surface; but he was too nearly exhausted to get Donald onto the deck of the buoy nine feet above the water. Two other youths who were on the buoy descended a ladder and removed Donald from the water. They then aided Paul onto the deck of the buoy.