More than two years after pulling a toddler and two women from the rushing waters of Oregon's Sandy River, Spc. Brendon Anstine received the Army's highest award for non-combat valor Tuesday in a ceremony at Fort Riley, Kansas.
Army Undersecretary Patrick Murphy was on hand to deliver the Soldier's Medal to Anstine, who was home on leave over the July 4th holiday in 2014 when he saw a float flip over and send its passengers into the river -- including a toddler, face-down.
"As soon as I saw a baby in the water, I was like, you just can't let something like that go without assisting them, somehow," Anstine said in a video produced by 1st Infantry Division. "I jumped in and I started swimming toward the baby as fast as I could."
A woman with the same idea swam toward the child, but panicked and began struggling. Anstine pulled the woman and child to shore, then saw another woman with a rope around her leg, trying to free herself.
"She could just keep her face above water, just a little bit," Anstine said in the video. "I could hear her crying from the shore. I had to go get her."
Anstine, then a private with A Troop, 5th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, managed to cut the woman free, according to his medal citation.
"Several people now walk this Earth because of what Brendon did," Murphy said during the ceremony. "What Brendon did that day should be a testament to what we all should aspire to be. To save others, when we have the chance."
