Medal Recipient Search
Cary Stewart, nominated by West Plains Fire Department
2017 Class
Awarded on: 11/13/2018
Public Safety Civilian Partnership Award
On April 28, 2017, Cary Stewart, a West Plains resident and member of the West Plains City Council, participated along with a team of six West Plains Fire Department members who rescued 92 people. The department considers his participation essential to the team’s success and worthy of commendation. Stewart and the firefighters focused on potentially catastrophic flash flooding that was turning small creeks into rushing rivers. Hundreds of homes were inundated. Howell County 911 was overwhelmed with rescue calls. Swift water rescue boats were not available. The team of Captain Wilbanks, Engineers Bell, Hammon and Sholes and Firefighters Brower and Cockrum, along with West Plains City Councilman Cary Stewart, proceeded in a firetruck, using a pike pole to find the roadway. They would continue to improvise in terribly adverse conditions – outfitting a borrowed johnboat and single paddle with forcible entry tools and rope rigging. They made rescues using the firetruck, boat and on foot through waist deep floodwater. In all, 92 people were rescued, with four patients delivered to the hospital by boat. Those rescued included the elderly, injured, a homebound elderly woman on oxygen and about three dozen college students who sought refuge on the roof of a dormitory.
Shawn Bice, Chris Brockelbank, Jeremiah Jones, and M. Corbin Thompson, West Plains Fire Department and Christopher Kimes and Tyler Pond, Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop G
2017 Class
Awarded on: 11/13/2018
Governor's Medal
On April 28, 2017, record flooding inundated West Plains as over 10 inches of rain fell in a matter of hours. The floodwaters swept vehicles off roads, homes and buildings off their foundations and put many people at great risk. Responders’ rescue boats capsized, were disabled or could not be deployed because of treacherous conditions. Country Meadows Trailer Park, east of West Plains, had quickly flooded, trapping residents. There were reports of a person having a heart attack and people on the roofs of trailers that were being swept away. West Plains Firefighters Bice, Brockelbank, Jones and Thompson, and Highway Patrol troopers Kimes and Pond, determined to approach the trailer park from railroad track on utility terrain vehicles. They then cut through thick brush and then waded across a field in chest-high water. Reaching the park, the four firefighters and two troopers’ rescues included three people who had been struggling to hold on in a trailer swept off its foundation and a woman who was experiencing chest pains and had to be carried to safety through the flooded field. The UTVs were used to transport the victims to waiting responders. A total of seven residents were rescued by the team, working as one unit, overcoming floodwaters, floating debris, heavy rain, lightning and many other obstacles.
Chris Bell, Gary Brower, Matt Cockrum, Richie Hammon, Grant Sholes and Kurt Wilbanks, West Plains Fire Department
2017 Class
Awarded on: 11/13/2018
Governor's Medal
On April 28, 2017, a second team of six West Plains firefighters and one civilian was focused on potentially catastrophic flash flooding that was turning small creeks into rushing rivers. Hundreds of homes were inundated. Howell County 911 was overwhelmed with rescue calls. Swift water rescue boats were not available. The team of Captain Wilbanks, Engineers Bell, Hammon and Sholes and Firefighters Brower and Cockrum, along with West Plains City Councilman Cary Stewart, proceeded in a firetruck, using a pike pole to find the roadway. They would continue to improvise in terribly adverse conditions – outfitting a borrowed johnboat and single paddle with forcible entry tools and rope rigging. They made rescues using the firetruck, boat and on foot through waist deep floodwater. In all, 92 people were rescued, with four patients delivered to the hospital by boat. Those rescued included the elderly, injured, a homebound elderly woman on oxygen and about three dozen college students who sought refuge on the roof of a dormitory.
Christopher Papineau, Columbia Police Department
2017 Class
Awarded on: 11/13/2018
Public Safety Medal of Merit
On the evening of May 13, 2017, a gunman, high on Methamphetamine, was firing a shotgun indiscriminately from the back of a residence. The gunman was in a tree and had a box of shotgun shells. Upon arriving, two officers were struck by shotgun pellets. The officers tried to negotiate with the gunman and set up a perimeter, but he quickly escaped with the gun and ammunition. The Columbia Police Department SWAT team was activated. As the first group of SWAT officers arrived in the area, the gunman was seen climbing onto the roof of an events center several blocks from the original scene. Inside, a graduation party was taking place. Many residents were also outdoors at a neighboring multi-story apartment complex. The SWAT team pulled within 60 yards of the gunman. He refused to comply with demands and stated he wanted to kill or seriously wound law enforcement officers and that he would not surrender. The gunman was in a prone shooting position when a pedestrian walked into his field of fire. Officer Papineau fired a single shot to prevent the gunman from harming the pedestrian. The gunman fell from the roof and was pronounced dead. Facing a gunman who had fired at civilians and officers, stated his intention to harm or kill others, and refused to negotiate, Officer Papineau acted to protect innocent civilians.
Logan Benjamin, Vandalia Police Department
2017 Class
Awarded on: 11/13/2018
Medal of Valor
On June 19, 2017, Corporal Benjamin responded to a residence to check on the welfare of a man who had been texting an ex-girlfriend that he was considering suicide. When he knocked on the front door, Corporal Benjamin heard a loud thud and gasping coming from inside. Corporal Benjamin immediately made entry and found a man hanging from a support beam from a belt that was around his neck. Corporal Benjamin grabbed the man around the legs and waist and lifted him to prevent certain strangulation. But the man repeatedly hit Benjamin in the head. Struggling to prop the man up, Benjamin’s portable radio microphone was knocked off, preventing him from calling for assistance. Despite the man continuing to fight violently, Benjamin managed to call for assistance and used his tactical knife to cut the belt the man was hanging from. As both men fell to the ground, the suicidal man went for Benjamin’s knife. Benjamin drew his service pistol and commanded the man to stop trying to hurt himself and Benjamin. The suicidal man complied and was transported to a hospital for a mental health evaluation. This man remains alive and well to this day because of Corporal Benjamin’s quick thinking and unwavering determination.
Michelle L. Vogel, Missouri Department of Corrections
2017 Class
Awarded on: 11/13/2018
Medal of Valor
On the night of Aug. 5, 2017, Corrections Officer Vogel was off duty when a window air conditioner caught fire in an apartment in Vogel’s apartment complex. Officer Vogel rushed into the burning building. The fire had spread throughout most of the first floor of the apartment. Inside, through thick smoke, and intense heat and flames, Officer Vogel searched to find anyone who might be trapped. As a result of her search, she found a four-year-old girl, who she quickly got out of the building to safety. Officer Vogel also made sure everyone else was out of the burning building. Outside, the girl’s mother, who was pregnant, was having trouble breathing. Officer Vogel attended to the mother until EMS arrived on the scene. Officer Vogel later took children’s clothing to the family to assist them in the aftermath of the fire. While off duty, Officer Vogel acted without hesitation and reached a young child trapped in a burning residence long before firefighters could have reached the trapped child.
Frank Mininni, Normandy Police Department, Chief of Police
2017 Class
Awarded on: 11/13/2018
Director's Leadership Medal
Colonel Mininni became Normandy Police chief in 2009, after serving 22 years with the department and steadily rising through the ranks. His two decades of experience made him aware of the gulf that existed between law enforcement and many residents in the north St. Louis County community. Determined to get his officers out of their police “bubble,” a month after becoming chief, Mininni introduced the Normandy Area Policing Initiative. It is a community engagement program designed to create real relationships between police and residents. The program implanted officers from each of the department’s divisions into specific areas of patrol. As people interacted with police, citizen satisfaction rose in resident surveys conducted by the department. To expand contacts with youth, Colonel Mininni implemented a lunch program that encouraged officers to eat lunch at local schools and engage with students. In 2015, Normandy Police and a partner nonprofit were awarded an $800,000 federal grant to put school resource officers back into the Normandy Schools Collaborative. Through these and other community engagement efforts, Colonel Mininni has worked to break down barriers and develop greater trust between citizens and law enforcement, and increase public safety in his community.
Chief of Department David Hall (Retired), Springfield Fire Department
2017 Class
Awarded on: 11/13/2018
Hall of Fame Award
For 34 years, David Hall served the citizens of Missouri as a firefighter, fire chief, fire service educator and homeland security leader. Beginning his career as a volunteer firefighter with the Mountain Grove Volunteer Fire Department in 1983, Hall moved to the Springfield Fire Department in 1989, where he would be elevated to chief of the department in 2009, and retire in 2017. As Springfield chief, Hall was known not only for advancing the department’s capabilities but for his skill as a manager. Hall’s impact was also regional and statewide, through his leadership efforts improving programs and the fire training curriculum provided by the University of Missouri Fire Rescue Training Institute (MUFRTI). Hall served as an adjunct instructor and in leadership roles for the MUFRTI fire school and co-developed the Fire Officer I and II curricula. Hall served since the inception of Missouri’s state homeland security program and had leadership roles in the Region D Regional Homeland Security Oversight Committee, which plays a key role in Missouri’s regional approach to homeland security investment decisions. Hall now continues to lead as Missouri State University’s emergency manager. His career has served as a model of improving public safety through education, advancing training and professionalism, and commitment to public safety colleagues and the public.
Jaime Solis, Richland Police Department
2016 Class
Awarded on: 10/28/2017
Public Safety Medal of Merit
On March 24, 2016, Major Solis and members of the Tri-County Fire Protection District responded to a residence with a suicidal person. A distraught man was shaking uncontrollably as he held a pistol under his chin. Major Solis is a trained negotiator, but the man would not respond. Solis continued to engage with calm dialogue from his position at a doorway. Eventually, the gunman requested two firefighters exit the area, which they did, leaving only Solis and the gunman. Still unable to engage him, Solis went against his training and entered the gunman’s room. The major’s plan was to forcibly disarm him if negotiations failed. After 90 minutes, the gunman began to discuss his issues. Relying on his training, Major Solis continued to engage the gunman and eventually got him to surrender his weapon, which had a round in the chamber. At great risk to himself, Major Solis inserted himself into a dangerous position with a distraught gunman, and successfully resolved the situation.
David Lyman, Building Rehabilitation Contractor, nominated by Kansas City Police Department
2016 Class
Awarded on: 10/28/2017
Public Safety Civilian Partnership Award
On May 25, 2016, Mr. Lyman, a building contractor, was in his truck when he noticed a large group of people in the street. Mr. Lyman stopped to investigate. A female animal control officer was being attacked by a dog owner. Seeing that none of the bystanders were doing anything to stop the assault, Mr. Lyman wrapped his arms around the assailant and pulled him off the animal control officer. The assailant then pulled a metal rod and attempted to attack Mr. Lyman.