18 named Carnegie heroes for acts of extraordinary heroism

Posted on by Jewels Phraner

heroism

PITTSBURGH, June 24, 2019—A high school teacher sprang into action when she was alerted to a 14-year-old student with a gun in her school’s cafeteria, a 16-year-old boy on his lunch break from his grocery store shift entered a 65-degree river after seeing a man struggling in the water, and, in two separate incidents, men died after entering the rough Atlantic Ocean after seeing children carried away from shore and calling for help. These are just four of the 15 Americans and three Canadians recognized in this class of Carnegie heroes.

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission today recognized these 18 civilians for risking their lives while trying to save others from perilous, life-threatening situations including Van L. Anderson, who pulled a 3-year-old girl from the wreckage of a violent accident in which acid was pouring from a tanker into the pickup truck where she was located, and Marvin George Dixon and Jose L. Casanova, who restrained and disarmed a woman who was stabbing and choking a police officer.

The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the U.S. and Canada to those who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others. With this second announcement of 2019 recipients, a total of 10,099 Carnegie Medals have been awarded since the Pittsburgh-based Fund’s inception in 1904. Commission Chair Mark Laskow said each of the awardees or their survivors will also receive a financial grant. Throughout the more than 115 years since the Fund was established by industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, $40.9 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits, and continuing assistance.

Summaries of the acts to follow. To nominate someone for the Carnegie Medal, complete a nomination form online or write to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, 436 Seventh Ave., Suite 1101, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. More information on the Carnegie Medal and the history of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission can be found at carnegiehero.org. Follow us on Facebook: facebook.com/carnegiehero and Twitter: @carnegie_hero.

The awardees are:

Resumes of the acts follow. To nominate someone for the Carnegie Medal, complete a nomination form online, write the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission at 436 Seventh Ave., Suite 1101, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, or call 1-800-447-8900 (toll-free). More information on the Carnegie Medal and the history of the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission can be found at carnegiehero.org. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Perneice L. White
Gretna, Va.

Perneice L. White, 49, emergency medical technician of Gretna, Va., rescued her 58-year-old neighbor, Wayne P. Crews, who was trapped inside a burning pickup truck after a nighttime accident on March 13, 2018. As White came upon the scene on her way home from work, flames, 5 feet high, issued from the truck’s engine compartment. With no burning vehicle rescue training or experience, White ran to the driver’s door and reached her hands and arms through its open window, grasping Crews’s arm and pulling him toward her. She braced her foot on a log and pulled on him, while Crews pushed with his legs from the inside, inching him through the window. Once he was halfway out of the truck, White readjusted her grip, grasping him by the back of his jeans and shirt and pulling him through the window to the ground. White dragged Crews away from the truck and suffocated flames on his legs. The fire quickly spread to the truck’s interior. Crews sustained serious burns to his legs, along with other injuries, and died three days later.

C. Kemp Littlepage
Devon, Pa.
William Bostic
King of Prussia, Pa.

Seventy-year-old C. Kemp Littlepage and 49-year-old William Bostic on June 12, 2018, both responded to a car that had entered a lake after its driver, Brian E. King, 37, suffered a seizure while driving in Wayne, Pa.  King remained unconscious in the driver seat, his hands clamped down on the steering wheel. Seeing the accident, Littlepage, a Devon, Pa., retired real estate developer, and Bostic, a business operator of King of Prussia, Pa., stopped at the scene. Littlepage reached the water first and swam about 80 feet to the car. By then the car had begun to sink, its front end completely submerged and water reaching its door handles. Littlepage reached through the open driver’s window and pulled King’s head away from the steering wheel, holding it above the surface of the water, and released King’s seatbelt. By then, Bostic and his 18-year-old son had entered the water and swum to the car, water by then reaching King’s chin. Bostic and his son pried open the front, passenger door, and while his son held the door open, Bostic entered the car. Littlepage pushed King toward Bostic, and Bostic pulled King from the car. He and others towed King to shore. King was hospitalized for injuries he sustained in the accident. Littlepage sustained scratches, and Bostic suffered a cut to his hand; they recovered.

Van L. Anderson
Chattanooga, Tenn.

Van L. Anderson, 54, a paving equipment operator of Chattanooga, Tenn., on Feb. 17, 2018, rescued 3-year-old Hazel Baldschun from the effects of a hazardous acid, after a semi-truck containing 5,000 gallons of toxic monochloroacetic acid hit the pickup truck containing Hazel and her mother and came to rest atop the pickup on an embankment. The acid was escaping the tanker and flowing into the pickup truck. Ignoring a 911 operator’s warning not to approach the wreckage and despite the acid continuing to flow into the pickup truck near Hazel, Anderson, who heard the accident from his house nearby, moved to the pickup. While standing on a rock outcrop adjacent to the pickup, he reached inside the vehicle, unfastened Hazel from her car seat, and lifted her from the truck. Anderson carried Hazel away from the wreck to safety. She had facial burns from the acid. Her mother died in the accident.

Julie K. Callaghan
Chilliwack, B.C.

Julie K. Callaghan attempted to rescue 40-year-old Matthew Jarvis from being struck by a train May 26, 2018, in Chilliwack, B.C. Jarvis was in a motorized wheelchair when its rear wheels became caught on a railroad track. Callaghan, a 44-year-old vocational counselor of Chilliwack, had stopped her vehicle at the crossing, as the gates descended and warning lights flashed. As a train traveling at 50 m.p.h. approached she saw that Jarvis was stuck. She darted beneath the crossing gate and went to Jarvis and, with another woman, attempted to lift and pull the wheelchair from the path of the train. With her back to the train, they tried twice unsuccessfully to free the chair. Callaghan looked over her shoulder and, seeing the train bearing down on them, began to move away from the track, when the train struck Jarvis and Callaghan’s hand. Jarvis was killed. Callaghan sustained broken bones and other injuries to her hand, which required surgery, and lacerations and scrapes to her legs.

Ryan Scott McIlwain
Douro-Drummer, Ont.

On July 13, 2018, 16-year-old, Douro-Dummer, Ont., high school student Ryan Scott McIlwain responded to a man who was struggling to stay afloat in the Otonabee River in Lakefield, Ont. While on his lunch break from his part-time job as a grocery clerk, he spotted the man who was calling for help. Ryan removed his outer clothing and shoes, entered the 65-degree water and swam about 100 feet to the man. He directed the man, who was panicking, to lie on his back, and Ryan grasped him around the chest. With one free arm, Ryan backstroked and used the current to help tow the man about 150 feet to wadable water downstream. There, someone assisted Ryan and the man out of the water. The man was taken to the hospital. Ryan was nearly exhausted and cold, but he was not injured.

Marvin George Dixon
Cromwell, Conn.
Jose L. Casanova
New Britain, Conn.

Marvin George Dixon and Jose L. Casanova helped to rescue a police officer from assault on May 17, 2018, in Hartford, Conn. Responding to a complaint, a police officer, 34, was inside a female resident’s apartment when the resident attempted to leave, prompting a violent struggle. As they wrestled in the kitchen, the woman obtained a kitchen knife, which she used to repeatedly stab the officer in the neck. In the building’s lobby, Dixon, 38, the building’s senior maintenance supervisor of Cromwell, Conn., and Casanova, 32, maintenance technician of New Britain, Conn., were alerted that the officer needed help and responded. In the hallway, they saw the assailant, still holding the knife and choking the officer. The men ran to them; Dixon grasped the assailant from behind and Casanova seized the knife from her hand. Dixon restrained the assailant while a building manager tended to the officer’s wounds until backup officers arrived. The officer survived and was hospitalized for treatment of serious wounds.

Kenneth Raye Gooch, Jr., deceased
Powells Point, N.C.
Michael S. Chandler
Stafford, Va.

On July 19, 2018, 12-year-old Blake Brock was playing in the ocean with his brothers off of Southern Shores, N.C., when a rip current carried him into water that was about 12 feet deep. Blake’s mother’s fiancé, Kenneth Raye Gooch, Jr., 32, a laborer of Powells Point, N.C., and vacationing firefighter Michael S. Chandler, 52, of Stafford, Va., responded. Gooch swam about 200 feet to Blake, moved behind him, grasped him under his arms, and threw Blake away from the rip current. Gooch struggled to stay afloat as he was carried by the current about 60 feet farther from the beach. By then, Chandler had entered the water and swam about 240 feet to Blake. Chandler grasped one of Blake’s arms and towed Blake to shallow water atop a sandbar where others assisted Blake to shore. Blake had swallowed sea water and was treated at the hospital for shock. He recovered. Chandler was nearly exhausted after the rescue, but he was not injured. Ocean rescue crews pulled Gooch from the water, but efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. He had drowned.

Raul Carrillo
Derby, Kan.

Off-duty state trooper Raul Carrillo responded to a Feb. 21, 2018, interstate highway accident in which a tractor-trailer hauling 7,500 gallons of diesel fuel overturned and caught fire near El Dorado, Kan. The driver, 55-year-old Kenny J. Cantrall was pinned inside the truck’s passenger compartment. Despite flames spreading to the interior of the cab, Carrillo, 46, of Derby, Kan., entered the cab to his waist through an opening where the windshield had been and pulled on Cantrall’s belt until he freed his upper body from between the front seats. With difficulty, Carrillo continued to pull on Cantrall, ultimately freeing his pinned legs from beneath the steering column. As Cantrall came free, they both fell to the pavement. Carrillo guided Cantrell farther from the truck, moments before fire engulfed the cab. Cantrall suffered severe burns and serious injuries. Carrillo suffered burns to his hands, and he recovered.

Troy Martin
Santa Paula, Calif.

On Feb. 11, 2017, 64-year-old machinist Troy Martin encountered a vehicle that, in an accident in Santa Paula, Calif., went off the highway into a ditch, coming to rest on its passenger side on uneven ground with driver 19-year-old Ricardo Rodriguez trapped inside and fire under the car’s hood and at the floorboards. Martin retrieved a machete from his car. Moving to a rocky slope at the car’s roof, he repeatedly struck the sunroof panel of the car until he created an opening, falling into the ditch once. With the dashboard on fire, Martin reached his arms through the opening and grasped Rodriguez’s upper body and attempted to pull him from the car, but lost his grip on Rodriguez and fell into the ditch again. He returned to the opening, and with difficulty, dragged Rodriguez from the car, which was shortly engulfed by fire. Rodriguez suffered a back injury and minor burns to a hand and his thighs. Martin recovered from minor burns to his hand, singeing to his head, and bruises and cuts to his head and legs.

Stephen Anthony Eberle
Ivoryton, Conn.
James R. Carroll
Middletown, Conn.

Stephen Anthony Eberle and James R. Carroll saved Shelton T. Smith from a burning vehicle July 16, 2017, after a nighttime accident in Middletown, Conn. Passing motorists Eberle, 31, power station electrician of Ivoryton, Conn., and Carroll, 65, teacher’s aid of Middletown, responded to the car, which had caught fire on the highway with Smith, 38, who was unconscious, inside. Using a tire iron, Eberle broke out the rear, driver’s-side window, opened the rear door, and entered the backseat, where he attempted to release Smith’s seat belt. Unsuccessful, he moved to the driver’s door and broke that window. Carroll then forced the door open, and held it open as Eberle twice attempted to enter the car there and release Smith’s seat belt. Carroll then attempted to do the same, but each attempt was thwarted by heat and fire, about 2.5 feet away from them. Carroll then used a pocketknife to cut the seat belt, and together they grasped Smith and tugging hard, removed him from the vehicle and dragged him away. The car was shortly engulfed in flames. Smith was treated for minor crash injuries, but was not burned.

Troy E. Strickland, deceased
Scottsburg, Va.

Troy E. Strickland died July 25, 2018, while attempting to save a girl from drowning in the Atlantic Ocean off of Emerald Isle, N.C. Strickland, 41, public defender’s office investigator of Scottsburg, Va., entered the ocean after seeing a girl shouting for help and waving her arms in the air. Despite warning red flags, dangerous surf and rip current warnings, and being verbally urged to stay on shore, Strickland swam to the girl, who was about 125 feet from shore. Strickland ultimately disappeared from view and submerged. Lifeguards shortly entered the water and removed Strickland and the girl. The girl was given oxygen at the scene; she was not injured. Strickland could not be revived. He had drowned.

Taylor Rod White
New Harbour, N.L.

Taylor Rod White, a 21-year-old crane operator from New Harbour, N.L., on March 13, 2018, entered 42-degree water after witnessing a vehicle travel off a road and into a bay of the Atlantic Ocean off of New Harbour. Despite heavy rain and wind, White swam about 80 feet to a 22-year-old woman who had exited the submerging vehicle and was floating, unconscious, near it. White towed the woman back to a dock, struggling in the cold water. Once he reached the dock, others assisted both of them from the water. White was cold after the rescue, but he recovered.

Andrea L. Harris
Tuscaloosa, Ala.

A water meter reader, Andrea L. Harris, 33, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., entered an overturned and burning car to save 7-month-old Demarcus T. Richardson on July 27, 2018, in Coker, Ala. The car, being driven by Demarcus’s mother, traveled off a rural highway, 50 feet down a grassy embankment, and overturned onto its roof. Fire issued from the car’s undercarriage near the engine. Demarcus’s mother exited the car and went to the highway for help, where she flagged down Harris. He ran to the car, and, after failing to open the passenger-side door, laid on his stomach at the rear, passenger-side door and broke its window with his hand. He crawled through the window into the smoke-filled car and felt for Demarcus. Locating him lying inside on the car’s roof, Harris grasped Demarcus’s leg and dragged him from the car. Flames grew and spread as Harris carried the boy to the highway.

Angela Lynn McQueen
Mattoon, Ill.

A high school teacher saved students and staff from a school shooter Sept. 20, 2017, in Mattoon, Ill. Students were at lunch in a high school cafeteria when a 14-year-old boy showed several students the .40-caliber, semiautomatic pistol he had brought to school. One student informed teacher Angela Lynn McQueen, 40, of Mattoon, and as she approached, the boy began to fire the gun toward other students. McQueen lunged for the gun and forced the assailant’s hand upward toward the ceiling as he continued to fire. McQueen kept the gun pointed to the ceiling until the gun was emptied, and then disarmed him as a school resource officer arrived to handcuff him. One student was hit with a bullet and recovered. McQueen suffered minor hearing loss in both ears and other injuries. The remaining students and staff escaped the cafeteria unharmed.