Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: June 15, 1987
• Invested on: June 10, 1988

Robert Orval Bray, M.B.
Bruce Andrew Stropkovics, M.B.
Medal of Bravery

At approximately 18:00 hours on February 16, 1986, Robert Bray and Bruce Stropkovics were snowmobiling home along the shore of the Lake St. Clair near Pike Creek, Ontario, when they encountered some police officers and ambulance attendants who informed them of unsafe ice conditions and of a fishing party who were stranded out on the lake. After helping an ambulance driver who had fallen through the ice to a nearby garage to get warm, they returned to the lake. Despite the darkness and a blinding snowstorm they and the policemen decided to attempt the rescue of one of the fishermen. Pushing an aluminium boat, they followed a flare line laid by a previous rescue party. When they reached the end of the flare line, they heard over the police radio that the U.S. Coast Guard was on its way. After the Coast Guard crew arrived, Messrs. Bray and Stropkovics offered to assist them in pushing their skiff over thin and patchy ice. Several times they broke through to the water, but they made it to the victim. A Coast Guard crewman threw him a line and pulled him to the skiff. Given the added weight of the victim and of the ice build-up on the skiff, the long trip back to shore was slow and exhausting.