Medal of Valor Association

[James Shaw]

i would be interested in this,

also Gen. Rich Anderson was awarded a SMV... be one more member that is still active to contact

Gen. Anderson is a current member. We have about 20 on the books. Please send me a PM with contact info and I will add you to the list.

[SJFedor]

...A firefighter took over CPR and Rae intubated the victim, and operated the bag valve mask while also tending to the victim's massive head wounds...[/font]

Was this a typo?

Just wondering, since you stated he was less than 18. CO requires EMT's to be 18+, and intubation is an advanced airway technique which isn't part of first aid/CPR training...

[Gunner C]

...A firefighter took over CPR and Rae intubated the victim, and operated the bag valve mask while also tending to the victim's massive head wounds...[/font]

Was this a typo?

Just wondering, since you stated he was less than 18. CO requires EMT's to be 18+, and intubation is an advanced airway technique which isn't part of first aid/CPR training...

When I was an EMT-B we could tube someone, but at our level we had to use a combi-tube.  Nevertheless, it's not necessarily an advanced technique.

Gunner

[JayT]

Combi-Tube is considered Advanced airway in New York, they don't let our EMT-B's combi-tube.

[Gunner C]

Combi-Tube is considered Advanced airway in New York, they don't let our EMT-B's combi-tube.

That's a shame - it's fairly fool-proof:  self corrects if the EMT gets the tube in the esophagus rather than the trachea; the patient is still ventilated.

Gunner

[JayT]

Yeah, it is.

It'll be in the next round of protocol updates, according to our Academy intructors.

[MIKE]

Topic or lock.

[PhoenixRisen]

Silver Medal of Valor. Distinguished and conspicuous heroic action, at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of normal duty.

b. Bronze Medal of Valor. Distinguished and conspicuous heroic action where danger to self is probable and known. (NOTE: In cases where a member is credited with saving a human life, but where the act does not meet the criteria for the Silver or Bronze Medal of Valor, the member should be recommended for a Certificate of Recognition in accordance with paragraph 9g.)

Just tryin' to clear up a question I've had.  If you're a member of, say a fire department or police department, and you do something heroic while on their time, can someone nominate you for these?  I've heard many that say you need to have done something while in a CAP capacity, and then I read some of these citations...

[lordmonar]

No....does not have to be in your "CAP capacity".

As a precendent I point out the Community Service Ribbon is awarded for actions that are completely outside of your CAP capaacity.

Most awards are for actions/service in the benifit of CAP...but Medals of Valor and Life Saving can be for when you are joe civilian on the street as well as Joe Ground Team Member/Aircrew Member.

[Timbo]

So an EMT/ or Paramedic can receive these awards just for doing their job??

If that is the case, I can technically say that "through my surgical endeavors I have saved the lives of many".

 

[lordmonar]

So an EMT/ or Paramedic can receive these awards just for doing their job??

If that is the case, I can technically say that "through my surgical endeavors I have saved the lives of many".

I would caviate that with the "above and beyond the call of normal duty" line.

An EMT or Fireman should not get a CAP award for "normal duty"...but if they went beyond...then yes give them a CAP award.

If you in your "surgical endeavors" go beyond the call of normal duty then you should get a lifesaving award.....just as the EMT should if they go beyond the normal call of duty.

It sucks that an EMT doing CPR on someone gets no award but Joe Cadet who does the same thing gets one....but is just the way things go...always has....and not just in CAP.   

My point is that you don't have to be on "CAP Time" to qualify for an award.

[James Shaw]

The key to this is supposed to be Non Compensated. This is why there is a vetting process. Many times even professional medical, fire, ems, and such go beyond there trained duties and still deserve it. If you are an EMT who is off duty and stop to render aid to someone in a burning building than you dont necessarily have the proper equipment to help. This is a subjective part of the process. You can argue this until the blog runs out of space but it is going to be based on each individual case.

This does not have to be on CAP time. Mine was not and most have not been.

[major pain]

mine was on cap time but not in a cap mission....

[Flying Pig]

I feel that if you are on duty as a cop, fire, EMS, etc. where your job involves certain risks, you don't get a medal every time you do CPR of show up at an accident and direct traffic.  However, in the case of a police officer for example, if your department chooses to step out and say you did something above and beyond, then CAP should recognize those on a case by case basis.  Contrary to popular Hollywood belief, EMS and law enforcement are not required to risk their lives to do anything.  Many do because that is who they are.
My case, I was awarded a Medal of Valor and Lifesaving Medal as a police officer.  Not for a gun battle or a SWAT action or chasing a criminal.  But for using a crow bar and my hands trying to pull a driver from a burning car, while the driver himself and the interior of the car was burning.  I can assure my partner and I were not thinking about our monthly salary.  I was submitted for a SMoV but found out years later that it had never been mailed in after I found the envelope and the 2a in an abandoned desk in the Sq.   However, I was unofficially tld that I wouldnt have qualified because I was on duty and trained to handle events like this.  What did I take away from it?  That this persons idea was that only untrained civilians who had no idea what they were getting into were the only ones who rate valor awards.  Which I know not to be the case.  Oh well.....

However, to say that I am excluded from a CAP decoration because I happened to be collecting a pay check at the time is ridiculous.  I dont want to sound like someone who is a medal hound, because I assure you I am not.  However I find it selfishly belittles the actions when peoples arguments are "Well, you were getting paid." I have also heard the argument of "Well, its not fair because those types of people, fire, police, EMS are always in those positions."  I agree.
That is why my argument is when your peers, people who have been in similar circumstances, step back and recognize your actions, I don't think its asking to much for CAP to do the same.  The actions of a CAP member on or off duty, in or out of CAP contribute to the membership and reputation of CAP.  If we are going to restrict people who are paid professionals, then lets make it across the board that you have to be on a CAP mission contributing to CAP to be considered or any decorations.
 
The only thing my employment brought to the situation was placing me in a position to make a decision. I, like any other recipient, made the decision to act. 

[Stonewall]

Similarly, this is why I was okay with it when my buddy sent a letter to my CAP Squadron Commander suggesting that I be awarded the Life Saving medal; because I was completely off duty, at the beach and wasn't obligated due to my job.  Still not sure why it never went anywhere, or if it did, got denied.

For a couple years in my life I was a volunteer firefighter, while I was in CAP.  I went into 3 or 4 burning buildings to look for people.  I personally cut people from vehicles where they were trapped, and I personally performed CPR several times...all "on duty".

I never felt that while on duty as a public safety professional, either as a volunteer firefighter or cop, that I would be deserving of a CAP award for something I did on the job.

[Duke Dillio]

My ex put me in for one about two years ago for pulling all of our kids out of my truck after it rolled while we were moving to California.  I was an EMT-B in CO and I have to tell you that the hardest thing I have ever had to do was pick up my 4 month old son up off the road after he was ejected from the vehicle during the roll.  I then pulled my two daughters and son out of the truck before trying to get my ex out.  Her left leg was trapped under the truck and I tried to lift the truck up to get her out.  I was able to get it up just enough to where she could reposition her leg.  Then, I punched out the windshield so that I could get her a blanket.  This was Nov. 2006 in Utah so it was pretty darned cold.  It is amazing what you do when you don't even think about things.  She put me in about two years ago and we still haven't heard anything since.

BTW - My son was ejected after his car seat failed.  When I found him, he was laying on top of one of my duffel bags that I had strapped to the roof of the truck.  He had a small cut on the back of his head which was bleeding.  I thought that it was going to be bad but as it turns out, he was perfectly fine except for the cut.  There were some angels working that day...

[RiverAux]

I have always felt that CAP awards should only be given for actions done on CAP time.  To give a CAP award for something done outside of CAP seems somewhat dishonest on the part of CAP as it is if CAP is claiming "credit" for the action.  Now, if the action is done while being paid or while serving with another organization, it is even less legitimate in my eyes for CAP to give an award for that action.  It should be up to them to give any award that is warranted.  

But, I wouldn't get bent out of shape if we gave a CAP award to a CAP member if they utilized a skill learned while in CAP (first aid) to save somebody's life.  Thats about as far as I would go though.

[Flying Pig]

So as a law enforcement officer, if I was OFF duty, and performed the same act, Id be eligible for a CAP award? Even though legally, I would be eligible for overtime when I am forced to jump into my Deputy role.  So if I put in the overtime card, Im not eligible, if I dont put in the overtime card, Im good in the eyes of CAP's awarding criteria.  Got it.

What's funny, is if I was off duty, or even on a CAP mission and performed an act of valor, my police agency wouldnt hesitate to award a valor or lifesaving medal for something I did in a CAP capacity.  Id be just as dead if something went wrong in either scenario.   Im expected to be a cop 24/7, but CAP I leave at the door one night a week at 2100hrs. Oh well, just my opinion.
Id have to say River has the best scenario.  100% CAP mission related or nothing if we are going to start picking and choosing.

Ill add this.....I recieved a PM last time this was discussed some time ago, either on here or cadetstuff when it came up, and the person who sent the PM actually told me "its not fair because your always in those situations."  BELIEVE ME...Im not.    That pretty much summed it up for me.

Look Im not trying to come across like a jerk.  If I was a medal hound, I wouldnt have waited 6-7 years to even follow up on a 2a I thought had been mailed.  I dont want the wrong impression to come across on this wonderful medium we call the internet.

[Duke Dillio]

I would respectfully disagree for the simple reason that CAP doesn't want us doing anything dangerous while we are performing our duties.  Safety is number one.  I'm pretty sure that if I were to jump into a burning plane to try to pull people out, the safety officer would have a heart attack.  Also, if I am in a CAP uniform and I run into a burning building to pull people out and I am injured or killed, does my family then have the "right" to sue CAP for my death?  Is CAP going to pay my medical bills?

If I am on a ground team during a missing person search and I find a victim at the bottom of a 30' cliff, CAP doesn't want me to rappel to the bottom to tend to them.  I am absolutely certain that I possess the knowledge and skills necessary to do that but CAP would most likely rather have me wait there until someone else arrives to do that.

I seem to recall an old CAP myth that in this case you could call the mission base and check yourself out and then do that as a private citizen but I have never heard of anyone actually doing that.  The point of these awards is to make CAP look good while limiting liability to the organization.  That's why I believe that people should have every right to earn these awards while "off-duty."

Now, getting an SMOV for directing traffic at a car crash certainly would not usually be warranted but that is another thread...

[Flying Pig]

If I jumped into a burning plane to pull people out and survived........the safety officer could kiss my ........