Star of Courage

• Awarded on: July 26, 1982
• Invested on: October 06, 1982

Captain Keith Trevor Gathercole, O.M.M., S.C., C.D.
Master Corporal Donald Stephen Gledhill, S.C., C.D.
Corporal Craig Douglas Seager, S.C.
Star of Courage

In the early hours of 27 December 1980 Capt. Keith Gathercole, Aircraft Commander of Helicopter 304, 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron from Canadian Forces Base Comox, braved foul weather in answer to a call to proceed to Squamish, British Columbia. Poor night visibility and gushing winds made his sortie extremely difficult, but he arrived on the scene and directed his crew in the perilous rescue of six people trapped in the flooding Cheakamus River. MCpl. Steve Gledhill and Cpl. Craig Seager repeatedly lowered through high trees and dropped chest-deep into the swift-flowing waters to wade towards the survivors. Throughout the manoeuvre the two men were in grave danger of the hoist cable tangling or breaking, and were well aware that an upstream road embankment holding back a fifteen-metre wall of water would soon collapse. The helicopter hovered in these hazardous circumstances at least eight times during the ninety-minute successful mission.