Medal Recipient Search
David L. Marshak and Bryan R. Taylor, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department
2015 Class
Awarded on: 11/28/2016
Medal of Valor
On Sept. 10, 2015, Captain Marshak and Corporal Taylor were in a patrol vehicle traveling northbound on Highway 141 when they observed a burning van on the highway shoulder. The vehicle had extensive damage due to a multi-vehicle collision and flames were shooting out of the car. Thick smoke made it impossible to see if anyone was inside the passenger compartment. Marshak used his baton to break the passenger window and then unlocked the door. He discharged a fire extinguisher, but it had virtually no effect. The fire was spreading, thick smoke continued to billow inside the passenger compartment, and leaking fuel under the vehicle was also burning. Taylor called out to the driver but there was no response, and the driver door would not open. Fighting the thick smoke, Taylor entered the cab through the passenger door and tried to extricate the driver. However, his seat belt would not release and the noxious smoke forced Taylor to leave the vehicle. Marshak then entered the van and continued the effort to remove the driver. Now conscious but disoriented, the 85-year-old man began resisting efforts to get him out. Fighting through the smoke, Marshak, assisted by a motorist, was able to dislodge the driver and pull him out of the burning vehicle to safety. Both Captain Marshak and Corporal Taylor were treated for smoke inhalation, and Marshak also received additional medical treatment for abrasions. Together, their efforts saved the elderly driver’s life.
Jason M. Hurt, Missouri State Highway Patrol
2015 Class
Awarded on: 11/28/2016
Medal of Valor
On Nov. 21, 2015, Trooper Hurt was off-duty and traveling in his personal vehicle in Monroe County. It was cold and had recently snowed, but Trooper Hurt noticed a barefoot woman on the side of the road. Hurt stopped and the woman stated her intoxicated boyfriend was attempting suicide in a nearby cabin and a neighbor was with him. Hurt responded to the cabin and found two men struggling over a rifle. He drew his handgun, entered the cabin, identified himself as a trooper and told the men to put down the rifle. The men continued to fight over the gun. With one man’s finger on the trigger and the rifle pointed toward the ceiling, Hurt holstered his weapon and attempted to seize the gun. A shot was fired into the ceiling but Hurt gained full control of the weapon, and ended the disturbance. The suicidal man was transported for a psychiatric evaluation. While off-duty, Trooper Hurt first came to the aid of a civilian in need of assistance, which led to him placing himself in harm’s way by entering a highly dangerous struggle over a loaded gun. His selfless and brave action ended the threat to both the suicidal man and the civilian.
David H. Brown and Robert W. Garrett, Missouri State Highway Patrol
2015 Class
Awarded on: 11/28/2016
Medal of Valor
Shortly after 2 a.m. on Dec. 27, 2015, as Missouri was experiencing record rainfall and flooding, Marine Operations Corporal Brown and Trooper Garrett responded to a call for a man clinging to a tree in the flooded Pomme De Terre River. The man had attempted to cross a bridge in Polk County on foot and was swept away. With no sign of the flood victim and his cries for help as their only guide, a jet boat was launched, operated by Garrett with Brown using a spotlight to search a tree line for the victim. Eventually locating the victim in a tree about 10 feet above the swift-moving floodwater, Corporal Garrett tactically maneuvered the boat through the turbulent water to the tree. Wet and hypothermic, the man slipped as he started to climb down. Unable to see him, Brown immediately dropped prone in the bow of the boat and reached both arms down in the roiling floodwater. He got hold of an arm and the man’s hair. The victim was devoid of strength and being pulled under by the current, but Brown got him into the boat and Garrett maneuvered it back to the safety of the shore. Corporal Brown and Trooper Garrett worked as a team using skill, decisiveness and bravery to overcome perilous circumstances and save the flood victim’s life.
Jordan V. Selsor, Meramec Ambulance District
2015 Class
Awarded on: 11/28/2016
Medal of Valor
On Dec. 29, 2015, Paramedic Selsor was part of an EMS team responding to a call from a motorist caught in floodwater between Catawissa and Pacific with water rushing into the vehicle and reaching the caller’s neck; contact was then lost. With no other responders or a boat on scene, the two paramedics had to act quickly. Selsor donned a life-vest and grabbed a pry axe. He then climbed into the bucket of a farmer’s front-end loader and had the farmer drive him to the submerged car. With the bucket extended from the tractor, Selsor jumped onto the trunk of the car, which was floating. He smashed out the rear windshield, which flooded more water into the vehicle but could not reach the victim in the front seat. Selsor then climbed onto the roof of the car and smashed out the sunroof. Unable to see in the muddy water, he felt around for the victim and began pulling her out by her hair. Eventually, he got a better hold of the victim and managed to extract her through the sunroof. Selsor stood on the car roof knee high in water with the patient until a Pacific Fire Protection District launched a boat and transported him and the victim to shore. The hypothermic patient was treated en route to the emergency room. Selsor was treated for numerous cuts and abrasions from the rescue. Acting quickly and decisively and without concern for his personal safety, Paramedic Selsor saved the motorist’s life.
Anthony K. Davis, Manchester Police Department
2014 Class
Awarded on: 12/16/2015
Medal of Valor
On Jan. 3, 2014, Officer Davis was dispatched to a fire in a three-story apartment building. He and another Manchester officer were first to arrive and found several residents running from the building as thick black smoke poured out, flames topping the roof. With the fire service not yet on the scene, Officer Davis and his fellow Manchester officer entered the building to alert the remaining residents to the need to evacuate. As Officer Davis assisted a woman out the front door, he heard a man’s voice calling for help. The victim was trapped on the third floor. The thick, choking smoke forced Davis to turn back before he could get to the top of the stairs. With time running short, Davis made a second attempt to reach the trapped victim, this time by low crawling. Staying low, beneath the densest smoke, Davis followed the man’s cries for help. Reaching the victim, Davis grabbed him and led him out of the apartment. Low crawling together, they made it through the hallway and down the stairs. Upon exiting, Officer Davis left the victim with fire department medics for treatment. Davis then re-entered the building and assisted another man out of the burning building. Only then did Davis, overcome by smoke, seek medical assistance. He was treated at a hospital and released that evening. First on the scene and lacking protective clothing and breathing apparatus, Officer Anthony Davis did not hesitate, but charged into burning building to save the lives of vulnerable civilians.
Richard L. Ayers, Missouri State Highway Patrol
2014 Class
Awarded on: 12/16/2015
Medal of Valor
Late on the night of April 27, 2014, Trooper Ayers received word that a motorist was clinging for his life along flooded Clarks Creek, near Highway 34 in Wayne County. The man’s vehicle had been swept off a low water bridge and into the creek. The driver had been swept about 100 yards downstream and was clinging to a tree in the swift flood water and had a leg injury. Trooper Ayers and a local police officer got into a volunteer firefighter’s boat on the other side of the creek in a rescue attempt. In the turbulent water the small boat capsized, tossing Trooper Ayers underneath the boat. Ayers, the firefighter and local police officer all made it to the shore. Trooper Ayers made his way down the bank, got to the victim and was able to pull him from the tree safely to shore. The victim’s body temperature had dropped and he was shaking uncontrollably. Trooper Ayers gave the victim his life vest to help raise his core body temperature. Eventually, another rescue boat transported Ayers and the victim to assistance on the other side of the creek. The victim was transported to a hospital for treatment for hypothermia and his leg injury. Despite being thrown from a rescue boat into the dark and churning flood water, Trooper Ayers remained calm and focused and saved the life of another.
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.