A Hero Recognized
In September 2012, over the Labor Day Weekend, a family went to the beach at Panama City Beach, Florida.
The husband and his daughter decided to go swimming. That turned out to be a bad move.
Beaches in that part of Florida are beautiful, and are world-renowned. And September is usually a very nice month. The Gulf of Mexico is still warm, and is usually reasonably placid.
But at times, those beaches are prone to riptides and undertows. Those can often be strong – and sometimes are deadly.
The man and his daughter were caught in a riptide. They were in serious trouble.
Fortunately, a man named Thomas Oroho was also at the beach that day, along with some professional colleagues. He heard the distressed man’s wife call for help. He went into the potentially deadly riptide. He swam to the two distressed swimmers and, with the assistance of two of his colleagues who also entered the ocean that day, brought them to safety.
The name may be familiar to some of our readers who are active-duty Army Aviators. That’s CW4 Thomas C. Oroho, US Army. The two others who assisted him were soldiers from his unit. Regrettably, their names are not readily available.
CW4 Oroho was presented the Soldier’s Medal at Davidson Army Airfield on 1 November 2013 for his heroism last September. His comments in the Army’s press release for the ceremony speak for themselves:
“I’m overwhelmed,” Oroho said after the medal presentation. “I don’t think I did anything that any other Soldier wouldn’t have done.”
No information is available as to what awards, if any, were granted to recognize the assistance of the two other soldiers. Hopefully their contributions to the rescue were appropriately recognized by their chain-of-command.
I don’t use the term “hero” lightly, especially in a nonmilitary context. But IMO, here it’s apropos.
Kudos to a true hero: CW4 Thomas O. Oroho, D Company, 12th Aviation, US Army.
Well done, Chief. Damn well done.
Note to our non-Army readers: the term “Chief” is used in the Army as an acceptable, informal, short form of address for a Chief Warrant Officer.
Category: Big Army, Real Soldiers
Well done Chief!
Bravo Zulu my brother. You do us all proud.
Damn good job, Chief.
“He thanked God for putting him in the right place at the right time.” That’s true but many people find themselves in places at times where they could do something to help someone—-and remain bystanders.
At least this story beats one about the Soldier’s Medal earned in knee deep water in Panama during the mid-90s. I saw the “heroic rescue” myself and was shocked to read about it later as a award in the Topic Times or whatever that base newsrag was called back then.
I don’t know how people wear such awards.
I remember a kid from Ft. Ord who went into 20+ foot surf off Moneterey attempting to save someone who had been swept in – by the time he was able to get the victim back to shore, the guy had already died (most likely from a hert attack due to exertion, they said) – don’t think the kid from Ft. Ord got jack, even though he definitely risked his life in front of maybe 100 witnesses. I want to say this was in ’77?
To clarify: “Chief: is Army used only after the rank of WO-2 (or CWO-2) is attained. WO-1 is still addressed always as “Sir” or “Mister”.
Either way, hell of a job chief 🙂
SSG Medzyk: you are correct. A WO1 is not a “Chief Warrant Officer”. That rank title begins at CW2.
yep, a WO1 is technically known as a ‘wobbley one’