Star of Courage

• Awarded on: May 17, 1976
• Invested on: June 28, 1976

Master Corporal William Robert Wacey, S.C., C.D.
Star of Courage

For more than thirteen hours MCpl. William Wacey was subjected to intense physical strain and the risk of serious injury while undertaking the rescue, from a helicopter, of several survivors of a windstorm which swept the Straits of Georgia in British Columbia on 30 March 1975. A number of vessels had capsized. When answering the first emergency, MCpl.Wacey was lowered on to a sailboat in winds of 70 m.p.h. Whilst hoisting one of the four victims, the rescuer was slammed against the hull of the vessel and incurred electrical shocks and bruises. In another incident the deck was significantly smaller, and MCpl.Wacey was accidentally dipped into the swelling sea, but he valiantly carried on nonetheless and lifted four other persons to safety. En route to hospital MCpl. Wacey administered first aid to the victims and then promptly returned to the scene of the disaster. Casualties were subsequently found on the shoreline and the mainland and with unceasing determination MCpl. Wacey and the crew repeatedly landed their aircraft under the most adverse weather conditions to complete the operations.