Heroes Awards of Valor for 39 police officers and firefighters

39 area police officers and firefighters receive Heroes Awards of Valor
By Michael Brocker

Inquirer Staff Writer

There were moments when Upper Darby Police Officer Raymond Blohm thought about quitting his dream job and never returning to the streets again.
"I had doubts and, yes, a lot of sleepless nights at first," he said of a shooting this year that left him injured and struggling with questions about his career.

Blohm was among 39 police officers and firefighters from Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania suburbs, and Delaware who received Heroes Awards of Valor at the National Liberty Museum on Wednesday night. It was the fifth year that the Center City museum had honored these men and women - and an occasional canine - for their courage and service.

"What these guys do is just extraordinary heroism," said Doug Tozour, president of the National Liberty Museum. "The policemen and firefighters risk their lives without a thought. That's what heroism is all about. This award will help to get them a little more recognition."

The honorees are traditionally chosen by the heads of the Fire and Police Departments.

"We could have named hundreds more," Philadelphia Fire Capt. Kevin O'Mally said.

Diablo, a specially trained Belgian Malinois who supports the patrol and narcotic units of the New Castle County Police Department, received the K-9 Hero Award.

Read more: Heroes Awards of Valor


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Fourteen members of the Army’s 12th Combat Aviation Brigade Medals of Valor from Germany

Soldiers become first to receive German honor

By Sean O’Sullivan - The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal
Posted : Friday Apr 30, 2010 18:12:23 EDT

Fourteen members of the Army’s 12th Combat Aviation Brigade on Thursday became the first non-Germans to receive Germany’s Gold Cross, one of that nation’s highest honors for valor.

The soldiers, based at U.S. Army Garrison-Ansbach, Germany, were honored for medevac flights they performed April 2 involving German troops who had been ambushed by some 200 Taliban fighters while on patrol north of the city of Kunduz, Afghanistan.

The firefight was still going on when the Black Hawk evacuation helicopters — two medical transport helicopters and one heavily armed “chase” helicopter — arrived, according to what Army Capt. Robert McDonough, who piloted one of the medical helicopters, told his father, Jack McDonough.

“The two Black Hawks did a combined seven landings into the middle of this battle. My son told me that he could see rounds hitting the blades of his helicopter and there were bullet holes in the Blackhawks,” Jack McDonough wrote in an e-mail message. “He said the incoming fire was so bad that at one point he banked the helicopter real hard to avoid the incoming rounds. He told me he saw the Taliban celebrating, thinking they had downed them.”

According to a letter sent to the McDonough family by Army Maj. Michael S. Hughes, the medevac team “performed heroically in the face of extreme adversity,” and their actions saved at least five German soldiers “and probably countless more.”
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Soldiers become first to receive German honor

Over 100 US veterans, clergymen to police officers to CEOs, are claiming medals of valor they never earned

Who's Who to vet U.S. vets after Tribune report
Coming Sunday: Tribune finds hundreds falsely claim medals of valor
By John Crewdson | Tribune correspondent
October 25, 2008
More than 100 American veterans, from clergymen to police officers to CEOs, are claiming medals of valor they never earned.

An investigation by the Tribune found that military records failed to support fully a third of the 333 Who's Who profiles claiming medals for courage in combat.

Who's Who, the country's biographical reference standard since its founding in Chicago 110 years ago, spends up to $1.5 million a year checking the educational and work histories submitted by those listed in the volume.

But military decorations? "We never thought anybody would be dumb enough" to lie about those, said Who's Who publisher Jim Pfister, so Who's Who never vetted those. Now it will.

Pfister, himself a decorated Vietnam veteran, decided to do so after a Tribune investigation discovered that a third of the medals for valor claimed by hundreds of Who's Who "biographees" are not supported by their military records. "We will change some of our processes in scrutinizing the awards section," he said.
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