Bio: Vanderwyst, Second Lt. Harold J. (Military - 1974)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Vanderwyst

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 9/12/1974

Vanderwyst, Second Lt. Harold J. (Military -1974)

Second Lieutenant Harold J. Vanderwyst, commander of the (Part of word missing), Mi., squadron of the (?) air patrol, was recently awarded a bronze medal of valor. Lt. Vanderwyst, the son of Mr. and Mrs. LaVern Vanderwyst, Granton, distinguished himself by conspicuous, public action by risking his own life to save the life of another on February 23, 1973.

According to a citation accompanying the medal, the lieutenant was snowmobiling behind his wife when her machine broke through the ice on the Thunder Bay River. He quickly parked his own machine and used a tow rope to pull the victim to safety. During the rescue attempt, Lt. Vanderwyst’s foot broke through the ice and the danger of his own safety was imminent.

After the rescue, he had to calm his wife, who was in a state of hysteria. He also replaced her wet clothing with his own before driving five miles to shelter. The temperature was between 10 and 15 degrees at the time, and without immediate attention Mrs. Vanderwyst would have perished.