PDA

View Full Version : Congratulations to Tank- Medal of Valor



Brooski
11-30-2006, 07:44 AM
Wow, what an honor to be one of the few to receive the Medal of Valor. Congratulations Tank.
URL: http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/county_news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_5179505,00.html
Governor honors Ventura traffic officer for valor
By Timm Herdt, therdt@VenturaCountyStar.com
November 30, 2006
It was raining hard that January day, so Ventura traffic Officer Patrick "Tank" Sears had to leave his customary motorcycle in the garage and check out a cruiser instead.
Highway 101 was closed north of town, cars were being diverted onto city streets and traffic was a mess. Sears decided to head on up the freeway to try to find out when it might reopen. Then he saw a mountain of mud sliding down a hillside and burying homes in La Conchita. The traffic problems would have to wait.
Sears drove into La Conchita, jumped out of his car and looked for what he could do. Power lines were down, gas lines were broken, people were screaming. Before the day was over, 10 people would perish in the Jan. 10, 2005, tragedy.
"It was just panic there, pandemonium," he recalled. "It was shocking to see. It reminded me of 9/11. There were people buried and it was very traumatic. The thing I wanted to do was to get as many people as possible out of harm's way."
Sears saw people digging at a pile of rubble and joined in. Within minutes, they heard voices from below. Using their hands, Sears and the others dug through 20 feet of mud, tree limbs and debris to uncover two women, Nadine Bunn and Cherie Chako, from what might otherwise have been their graves.
Sears then stayed on the scene for several hours until firefighters, concerned that he did not have the proper gear to protect him from danger, ordered him to leave. "I was scared the whole time," he admitted. "I just wanted to get home to my family."
On Wednesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger awarded Sears California's highest award for public safety officers, bestowing upon him one of just six Medals of Valor granted to police officers around the state for acts of heroism in 2005.
Schwarzenegger called the recipients "the finest of the finest" among public safety officers in the state. Marveling at the details of their acts, the governor said, "You think that these stories come right out of the movies. Let me tell you: There's a big difference between movie action heroes and real action heroes."
The medals were given out in ceremonies at the governor's office, where Sears was joined by his wife, Kelly, and daughter, Taylor.
The awards were established by legislation in 2003 that created a formal process through which local agencies submit nominations to the Attorney General's Office. The nominations are reviewed by a committee made up of representatives from all major public safety organizations in the state. The winners for 2005 were selected from 98 nominations.
Sears, a resident of Oxnard, has been with the Ventura Police Department for eight years. He said he believes that any law enforcement officer, if confronted with the same situation, would have responded the same way. "It's just something that we do," he said.
He continues to work traffic duty, and on dry days patrols the streets of Ventura on his motorcycle.
On Wednesday, Sears was feted as a hero. The rest of the time, he joked, "I'm the bad guy who gives out tickets."

H20 Toie
11-30-2006, 07:54 AM
Dam good job there Tank.

Steamin' Rice
11-30-2006, 08:02 AM
Congrats Tank.... Are you going to take the Governator out for a ride on the Top Gun?? :D :D

OnlyMoney
11-30-2006, 08:03 AM
Great job Tank! :rollside: I got a little misty-eyed there. :p

Miss Perfect
11-30-2006, 08:08 AM
That's awesome Tank! great job :)

INSman
11-30-2006, 08:41 AM
Always nice to help out those that cannot help themselves and Tank is probably in the position to do so fairly often and probably rarely receives the credit he deserves along with the rest of the folks in his line of work.
Nice job BRO :cool:

Charley
11-30-2006, 08:57 AM
very nice! well done and Thank you for doing what you do

Jbb
11-30-2006, 09:15 AM
Congrats Tank!....

SHAKEN Not Stirred
11-30-2006, 05:24 PM
Great job Tank.....
CJG
:)

Havasu47
11-30-2006, 05:39 PM
For those of you that don't know him, Tank goes by Liquid Courage on the Forums. He is very humble and very few people know about this achievement.
Way to go Tank.

C-2
11-30-2006, 06:09 PM
Tank rocks!!! He's a pretty good PR guy for the Desert Storm poker run too!
Congrats Tank :)

MudPumper
11-30-2006, 06:39 PM
http://mas.scripps.com/VCS/2006/11/30/20061129-214942-pic-314329318_e.jpg

HatenWinter
11-30-2006, 07:02 PM
Congrats TANK! I was on the La Conchita incident for 2 days and can honestly say it was one of the worst incidents I've been on in my 10 years. There were many true acts of heroism that occurred immediatley after the slide by both firefighters and cops such as Tank. Looking up at the slide not knowing if it was going to come down again and take us all with it was bad enough but the worst part was the overall emotions of the community. At times we were digging through the mud side by side with family members of the missing. There were alot of fights breaking out when people were asked to leave the area for their own safety. I take my hat off to Tank and the other cops that were there, doing everything they could without the same training and safety equipment that we have. It's nice to see deserving people get recognized. Job well done!

hurleyr
11-30-2006, 07:17 PM
This one is close to home for me. Although not as bad as the second one, one of my buddies worked the first slide. That one was bad enough.
My neighbor is really good friends with the guy that lost his family. All but one of his daughters. It was killing me to watch the news because they kept showing the guy over and over calling for his family and digging for them. There are times when the camera's just need to be shut off. This was certainly one on those times.
Well done Tank! What a great honor!

BeetleJuice
11-30-2006, 07:54 PM
Thanks to Tank and to everyone that puts themselves in harms way to help others.

Liquid Courage
12-01-2006, 07:52 PM
Thanks you guys...It was truely a team effort by all involved and I think everyone there deserved this medal. I'm just glad I was able to help pull two out alive.

Huckleberry
12-02-2006, 12:08 AM
Congrats on being honored Tank! It's not often we get an attaboy in our line of work. Good job!

Outnumbered
12-02-2006, 12:56 AM
Congrats