Anthony Evans Jackson helped to rescue Clayton C. Miller from a collapsing building, Arlington, Virginia, April 29, 1963. At an apartment building under construction a 40-foot section of the outside wall of the first floor collapsed, and 20 feet of the wall between the two completed floors above it fell outward onto sloping ground. The ends of girders supporting the two floors dropped and dumped Miller, 39, bricklayer, and 35 tons of brick and blocks onto the slope. As the earth, masonry, and debris slid into the ground floor, Miller, who was only slightly injured, was carried nearly to the bottom of the slide and his legs were partially buried. He freed himself and attempted in vain to climb the steep slope as some dirt continued to slide into the bottom floor through a hole 10 feet across in the collapsed floors, which had stopped most of the sliding. Jackson, 23, laborer, and Samuel Sanders made their way to the hole. Through it they entered the building despite warnings that other parts of the six-story structure might further collapse. Jackson descended to Miller, grasped his hand, and tried without success to aid him up the slope formed by the slide. Sanders then reached them and took hold of Miller’s other hand. With their backs to the slope, Jackson and Sanders pushed with their feet and drew upward on Miller, who tried feebly to climb. By occasionally securing footing in the dirt, they moved Miller eight feet toward the opening in the floors. Noting that Jackson and Sanders were progressing slowly and with difficulty, Dana M. Donohew entered the building and descended to them. Jackson then dropped to below Miller, and Donohew grasped the latter’s hand. Dirt continued to slide on them, getting into their eyes and causing them to cough. With Sanders and Donohew pulling on Miller as Jackson pushed him from below, the three men moved him eight feet farther to the opening and aided him away from the building.
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