Medal Recipient Search
Nathan F. Box, Missouri Department of Corrections
2014 Class
Awarded on: 12/16/2015
Medal of Valor
On May 30, 2014, at the South Central Correctional Center in Licking, an offender attacked a corrections officer with an 8-inch-long steel improvised weapon. The offender had stabbed the officer multiple times, including in the jaw, back of the head and left torso when Corrections Officer Box came to the officer’s aid. He first deployed pepper spray at the attacker, but it had no effect. Corrections officers do not carry guns, Tasers or other weapons, so Officer Box had to physically engage the attacker, attempting to pull him away from the injured officer. The attacker remained violent and began attacking Officer Box. In subduing the attacker to protect his wounded colleague, Officer Box suffered a stab wound and a fractured jaw. Despite his injuries, Officer Box was able to subdue the attacker and recover the improvised weapon. The wounded officer who was originally attacked was treated at a hospital and released. Officer Box was also treated, including requiring surgery on his jaw. Serving unarmed in a potentially highly dangerous environment, corrections officers must depend upon one another to risk their own well-being to protect one another. Officer Box bravely acted to protect the life of a fellow officer and restore order.
M. Anthony Maupin and John D. (Jade) Wright, Missouri Department of Conservation
2014 Class
Awarded on: 12/16/2015
Medal of Valor
On Sept. 9, 2014, over nine inches of rain swept across northwest Missouri in a matter of hours, leading to widespread flash flooding, including along Squaw Creek in Holt County. After 9 p.m., a school bus with only the bus driver onboard was swept off Highway N, becoming lodged against a fence. With the swift water rising rapidly, a Department of Conservation boat was launched into a flooded ditch. Agent Wright maneuvered the boat through the roiling water with Agent Maupin and a Missouri State Highway Patrol sergeant also aboard. Upon approaching the precariously positioned bus, Agent Wright used all his skill to hold it in position so Agent Maupin and the patrol sergeant could get close to the door to the bus. They had to fight the rushing water to open the bus door. They threw the driver a life vest. Then, with the boat positioned close to the door, Agent Maupin was able to reach the driver and pull her safely into the boat. Once back on land, EMS personnel tended to the bus driver.
Eric E. Abbott, Missouri Department of Conservation
2014 Class
Awarded on: 12/16/2015
Medal of Valor
On Sept. 9, 2014, when flash flooding inundated a one-half mile stretch of Interstate 29 near Mound City, sweeping four vehicles off the interstate, Conservation Agent Abbott was first on the scene. He immediately shut down I-29. One of the four vehicles that were swept off the highway came to rest in the depressed highway median. The vehicle was entirely submerged, with only the luggage rack above the surface of the water. The driver was clinging for his life to the luggage rack. The rushing water was too turbulent to attempt a boat rescue. Agent Abbott grabbed rescue equipment and climbed onto the front of a MoDOT road grader, which was then driven into the swift water to the desperate motorist. Surrounded by swirling water, Agent Abbott threw the man a rescue rope and instructed him on how to secure it. On the count of three, the victim jumped toward the road grader into the roiling water. Agent Abbott braced himself on the grader and quickly pulled the victim to safety. Fighting against time, turbulent flood water and darkness, Conservation Agent Abbott used his ingenuity and bravely rescued a flood victim.
Timothy J. Dorsey, David P. Klump and Daniel R. Roderick, West County EMS and Fire Protection District
2014 Class
Awarded on: 12/16/2015
Medal of Valor
On Nov. 24, 2014 a man shot a University City Police officer after first killing his mother. On the night of Nov. 25, with the gunman barricaded in a Vinita Park residence, Deputy Chief-Paramedic Dorsey, Paramedic-Firefighter Klump and Paramedic-Firefighter Roderick responded to the highly dangerous scene to serve as unarmed tactical paramedics assisting a Federal Bureau of Investigation Tactical Team. After seven hours of attempted communication with the gunman and reconnaissance, the tactical team entered the house. Within minutes, there were shouts for medics. As gunfire was exchanged with the gunman and the house became engulfed in flames, Dorsey, Klump and Roderick responded into the hot zone. An F.B.I. agent who had been shot was brought out of the house and Dorsey, Klump and Roderick, outfitted in protective tactical gear, including body armor and tactical helmets, administered emergency lifesaving care for a gunshot wound to the left chest and shoulder region. As smoke poured from the burning building, a second F.B.I. agent who was shot in the leg was brought out to the front lawn of the house. Amidst the battlefield-type conditions, he also received emergency lifesaving care. Once the first agent was moved out of the danger zone, he received care on scene in an ambulance from Dorsey and Klump, who continued administering care while transporting him to a trauma center. Paramedic-Firefighter Roderick treated the other wounded agent in a second ambulance and continued care en route to a trauma center. Both F.B.I. agents recovered from their injuries. Under fire in dangerous battlefield-type conditions, Deputy Chief-Paramedic Dorsey, Paramedic-Firefighter Klump and Paramedic-Firefighter Roderick bravely answered the call to administer emergency care and preserve human life, no matter the threat to their own lives.
Michael C. Hoefle, St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department
2013 Class
Awarded on: 12/18/2014
Medal of Valor
On the night of Feb. 15, 2013, while patrolling near West Alton, Deputy Hoefle (Hay-flee) watched a car speed into a parking area near the Mississippi River. As Deputy Hoefle moved toward the vehicle, it drove over parking blocks and into the river. The vehicle began sinking 50 feet from the shore. The lone occupant, a woman crawled to the back seat and attempted to kick out a rear window as the car continued to sink. Water was filling the passenger compartment. Deputy Hoefle entered the water, got to the vehicle, used his window punch to break out the rear window and quickly extracted the woman from the vehicle. He then pulled her to the shore and out of the frigid water into the 30-degree air. The driver was transported to a hospital and treated for hypothermia. On a cold, dark night, along a deserted stretch of the Mississippi River, Deputy Sheriff Michael C. Hay-flee was the difference between life and death. He bravely and decisively acted without hesitation, risking his own life to save the life of another.
Brock E. Kelley, Independence Police Department
2013 Class
Awarded on: 12/18/2014
Medal of Valor
On April 7, 2013, Officer Kelley and another Independence Police officer responded to the Econo Lodge on 42nd Terrace for a reported theft at the motel. Upon arrival, employees directed the officers to two men outside the motel who had allegedly been stealing items from a guest room. As the officers approached, one of the suspects ran. The officers pursued on foot. After rounding a corner of the building, the suspect drew a handgun and began shooting at the officers. Officer Kelley was so close he felt the muzzle flash from the gunman’s weapon on his face and arm. The gunman continued firing a total of 13 shots at the officers. Officer Kelley fired three rounds from his service weapon, striking the gunman. During what originated as a routine police call, Officer Brock E. Kelley faced a life-or-death threat to himself, his fellow officer and motel employees and guests. Under fire, he acted swiftly to eliminate a deadly threat to himself, his fellow officer and the public.
Daniel J. Johnson and Jason W. Philpott, Missouri State Highway Patrol
2013 Class
Awarded on: 12/18/2014
Medal of Valor
In the early morning hours of April 18, 2013, Douglas County was inundated following prolonged and heavy rainfall. Flash flooding swamped low-lying areas. At 8:10 a.m., Troopers Johnson and Philpott responded to a call for an elderly couple trapped in the mobile home near Route A and County Road 409. Water was entering the residence and quickly rising. Troopers Johnson and Philpott launched a Patrol boat, got to the home, outfitted the couple with personal flotation devices and placed them into the rescue boat. As they pulled away, the vessel’s motor stalled after the propeller became entangled in barbed wire. The vessel began turning and taking on water in the swift current. The troopers paddled vigorously, attempting to get to a nearby outbuilding, but the boat capsized. All four occupants began drifting downstream in the swift moving water, headed toward a certain crash into a flooded concrete bridge. Troopers Johnson and Philpott each swam to and retrieved the elderly couple. Once they had them, they swam against the swift current and brought them to shore, just a few feet from the edge of the concrete bridge. In turbulent and swirling waters, Troopers Johnson and Philpott remained steady, calm and vigilant, saving the lives of the couple they had been dispatched to rescue.
Justin Glen Wooten, Scott County Sheriff’s Department
2013 Class
Awarded on: 12/18/2014
Medal of Valor
At approximately 2:30 a.m. on May 25, 2013, Deputy Wooten responded to a chaotic scene: two freight trains had collided and derailed, collapsing the Route M overpass near Rockview in Scott County. A diesel fire lit the night sky for miles around. A total of seven people were injured in both automobiles on the buckled overpass and the engine of one of the trains, which was burning. The two-man train crew was trapped inside the crumpled engine with the fire growing. Without hesitation or regard for his own safety, Deputy Wooten climbed into the overturned engine and single handedly extricated the engineer and conductor, who were unable to get out on their own. Freeing one of the men, a diabetic, who was immobile, required locating an alternate exit as flames neared the train’s fuel tanks. With the victims out, Deputy Wooten and arriving medical personnel moved them down a steep incline to a safe area away from the crash scene. In a perilous situation, with a train on fire and victims trapped, Deputy Sheriff Wooten calmly and with great dispatch located and, despite all obstacles, pulled two men out of harm’s way to safety.
Kyle M. Weiss, Pevely Police Department; and Nina M. Osia and Michael T. Toombs, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office
2013 Class
Awarded on: 12/18/2014
Medal of Valor
In the early morning hours of Oct. 11, 2013, Sheriff’s Deputies Osia and Toombs received permission to search a residence in rural Jefferson County where a man was wanted for a felony and fugitive warrant. As Deputy Osia walked down the stairs into the basement, she spotted a gunman crouched with an AK-47 semi-automatic rifle. Deputy Osia attempted to push Deputy Toombs, who was behind her, and yelled, “He’s got a gun!” The gunman began firing at both deputies, hitting Deputy Osia in her leg and knocking her to the floor. Deputy Toombs quickly began to drag Deputy Osia out of the line of fire while returning fire at the gunman. Deputy Toombs was then struck in the left arm by at least two bullets from the gunman. Both deputies worked to cover one another as they returned fire, and they administered first aid to each other. They radioed for backup units, but the gunman escaped. Six hours later, Pevely Police Officer Kyle Weiss was one of five officers who responded to a residence just a few blocks away from the original scene after receiving a tip. Officer (now Sergeant) Weiss was stationed in front of the house. As an entry team cleared a barricaded room, the gunman broke out a window and ran out of the house. Officer Weiss saw the gunman approaching and ordered him to stop and drop his weapon. Instead, he turned toward Weiss and raised his weapon to fire. To protect his own life and the safety of others, Officer Weiss fired two shots, fatally wounding the gunman. While under fire and wounded, deputies Oh-she and Toombs, who combined had just 12 months experience as deputies, acted as a team to protect each other and responding officers. Hours later, Officer Weiss did not retreat to cover but instead eliminated an immediate threat to him and the public.
Jay Brad King and Jason D. Sederwall, Jefferson City Police Department
2013 Class
Awarded on: 12/18/2014
Medal of Valor
On Dec. 10, 2013, a Jeep involved in a two-car collision on Highway 94 burst into flames, trapping the driver. Her legs and hips pinned and her legs were burning. Officer King (now a deputy with the Washington County (Ore.) Sheriff’s Department) was first on the scene, encountering flames shooting 10 feet above the car. He and Officer Sederwall (Cedar-wall), second on the scene, attempted to put out the blaze with their fire extinguishers. With no fire personnel on scene, the officers concentrated on protecting the victim’s legs as their extinguishers ran dry. Unable to open either of the driver’s side doors due to damage, Officer King used his ASP baton to break out the windows to evacuate the smoke from the passenger compartment so the victim could breathe. Entering from the right rear door, Officer King, despite his 7-foot-1 and 320-pound frame, crawled into the back of the Jeep, alternating between attempting to extricate and comfort the victim. Officer Sederwall continued assisting while positioned at the rear passenger door until firefighters arrived, extinguished the blaze and cut the victim from the wreckage. She had suffered third-degree burns to almost half her body, fractured bones, a collapsed lung and pneumonia. Firefighters agreed that if not for the efforts of officers King and Sederwall, she would not have survived.