Star of Courage
Awarded on: 1974-12-20
Invested on: 1975-04-03
On July 23, 1974, during the war in Cyprus, a Canadian patrol conducting a group of combatants out of a UN controlled area came under fire. Some combatant soldiers were killed and others wounded and the Canadian officer commanding the patrol was wounded. Pte Joseph Plouffe, a member of the escort party, went at once to the aid of the fallen officer. Moments later he sustained a bullet wound in the face but despite this injury, he continued to render first aid in complete disregard of the peril to his own life.