Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: October 3, 1977
• Invested on: December 02, 1977

Cpl. (now MCpl.) Thomas Griffin, of CFB Trenton, Ontario, in complete disregard of his own safety, attempted the rescue of a man from a sewage disposal plant at CFB Penhold, Alberta, on 6 May 1976. Cpl. Griffin, a medical assistant at the base, had been called to the scene and advised that the victim way lying at the bottom of an underground chamber. Though aware of the presence of gas, the rescuer descended twenty feet into the shaft and found the man overcome by the fumes and partly under water at the foot of a ladder. From the ladder he grasped the victim, then called to those above for a rope. The water level in the chamber had meanwhile continued to rise, and Cpl. Griffin also succumbed to the fumes. Those at the top put on breathing apparatus and brought both Cpl. Griffin and the victim to the surface.