Coast Guard awards sergeant for heroic actions

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JETERSVILLE, Va. (AFPN) --  Staff Sgt. John M. Rosenberry, Sr., poses alongside the gravesite of his friend Kevin Mark Emerson in Jetersville, Va., after the Coast Guard presented him a medal for his life-saving actions during a ceremony April 11.

Sergeant Rosenberry was awarded the Coast Guard Silver Lifesaving Medal, and Mr. Emerson was posthumously awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal for the heroic rescue of two young boys caught in a riptide while vacationing in the Outer Banks of North Carolina in July 2006. Mr. Emerson died as a result of his heroic actions.

The Gold Lifesaving Medal and Silver Lifesaving Medal are awarded by the Commandant of the Coast Guard, to any person who rescues or endeavors to rescue any other person from drowning, shipwreck, or other perils of the water. If such rescue is made at the risk of one's own life, and evidences extreme and heroic daring, the medal is gold. If such rescue or attempted rescue is not sufficiently distinguished to deserve the medal of gold, but evidences such extraordinary effort as to merit recognition, the medal shall be silver.

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