Medal Recipient Search
Michael J. Kuss, Springfield Fire Department
2015 Class
Awarded on: 11/28/2016
Medal of Valor
As midnight approached on May 29, 2015, following a major storm and flash flooding, the Springfield Fire Department Water Rescue Team responded to a mutual aid call from the Logan-Rogersville Fire Protection District. A vehicle had been swept off a bridge over the James River east of Springfield. In the pitch dark, two parents and their three children were desperately fighting for their lives against the swift, churning floodwater by clinging to trees. When the Springfield Fire team arrived, the victims had been holding on for 30 minutes and were yelling that they could not last much longer. A boat rescue attempt was immediately launched, piloted by Rescue Specialist Marc Becker. In the darkness, and with floodwaters roiling, the team’s single boat reached the victims. However, the boat did not have room for all of the victims and the adults were losing the strength to hold on and remain afloat. Firefighter Kuss volunteered to stay behind in the water with the adults as the three children were placed in life vests, pulled into the boat, and moved to the safety of the shore. With their resistance flagging in the frantic situation, Firefighter Kuss’s calm support and instructions for the adults was critical in saving the parents until the rescue boat could return and reunite them with their children on the shore.
Jason A. Jameson, Boone County Sheriff’s Department
2015 Class
Awarded on: 11/28/2016
Medal of Valor
During a snow storm on the night of Feb. 28, 2015, Boone County Sheriff’s deputies and the Missouri State Highway Patrol responded to a homicide scene north of Columbia where two victims lay deceased and a third was in critical condition. Witnesses reported the killer, armed with a handgun, was escaping in a white car. Jameson and a Highway Patrol sergeant positioned their vehicles in an attempt to intercept the fleeing car, and Jameson observed what he believed to be blood on the side of vehicle.
Jeffrey A. Haislip, St. Charles Police Department
2015 Class
Awarded on: 11/28/2016
Medal of Valor
On the night of Feb. 4, 2015, Officer Haislip was first on the scene to a structure fire on North Third Street. Haislip quickly noticed the blaze from a vacant commercial building was spreading to a house just a couple of feet from the burning building. Officer Haislip banged on the storm door to alert anyone inside. When there was no answer, he broke the glass on the storm door and kicked open the wood door, even as flames were racing up the side of the house and across the roof. During his search, Haislip discovered a frightened and disoriented 86-year-old woman who was unable to move. He picked up the woman and carried her outside. With thick black smoke now choking the neighborhood, Office Haislip carried the woman down the street to medical attention at an ambulance. Before the fire service had arrived on scene, and without protective equipment, Officer Haislip’s swift, decisive, selfless action saved the life of a fire victim who could not have escaped her burning residence on her own.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
David W. Crank, Missouri State Highway Patrol
2013 Class
Awarded on: 10/12/2013
Medal of Valor
On the night of March 10, 2012, Trooper Crank initiated a traffic stop of an SUV on I-55 in New Madrid County. There was a strong odor of raw marijuana in the SUV, which had four occupants. The driver was cooperative and exited the vehicle and accompanied Crank to his patrol car. Crank returned to the SUV to obtain IDs from the three passengers, but they denied having IDs. Crank then requested backup. When Corporal Jeremy Stewart arrived, he and Crank approached the SUV and requested the passengers exit the vehicle one at a time. One did so. The passenger in the front passenger seat refused to comply and immediately locked the door. Crank saw the front seat passenger reach between the seat and center console. Crank alerted Stewart and drew his service weapon. Stewart opened the driver's side door and the passenger fired a single shot, striking Stewart in the neck. To protect Corporal Stewart and himself, Trooper Crank fired repeatedly at the passenger, killing the gunman. On a dark highway, in a perilous situation, Trooper Crank acted swiftly to eliminate a deadly threat and protect his wounded colleague. Corporal Stewart underwent surgery, made a full recovery and returned to duty.