http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/missourist_5730.mp3
A profile of Andrew Ward, a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper awarded the Medal of Valor by Governor Jay Nixon for his efforts to rescue a driver from a burning vehicle in 2008.
RANDY: Courageous acts aren’t usually pre-meditated. Often they’re a matter of training… and instinct. 24-year-old Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Andrew Ward is a great example of this. Last month he was awarded the Missouri Medal of Valor by Governor Jay Nixon for his actions in the line of duty in January of 2008. But to hear Andrew tell the story, it was just all in a day’s work.
TROOPER ANDREW WARD: I grew up in Shell Knob; I went to high school at Cassville. After I graduated from Cassville I went to C of O for a year and a half before I got employed with the Patrol. Law enforcement has been in my family all my life: my father was a Conservation agent, so I spent many hours with him. And my uncle is also a State Trooper, over in Troop G, Jeff City, with the Airplane division. Mike Hargis is my uncle.
RANDY: Andrew says his uncle did a good job preparing him for becoming a Highway Patrol trooper.
ANDREW: Yes, he did. He actually gave me a big insight, because the training--when that happens that day, it’s an eye-opener! So I had a pretty good insight of what was going to happen in the first 48 hours. There’s actually a nine-month process from the time you put in your application to when you actually start with your training. And after your training begins you have six months of intensive physical and mental training--books, running, exercise, about anything you can think of those six months, before you actually become a trooper.
RANDY: So you became a full-fledged trooper when?
ANDREW: It’d be July of 2006.
RANDY: So what, generally, does your job as a trooper involve?
ANDREW: I mainly just work the highways, enforcing the laws of the road, from seat-belt violations to arresting people for driving-while-intoxicated. So I have a very wide variety of things I can do.
RANDY: Well, sometimes those things include dealing with a bad car accident. On January 7, 2008, which Andrew Ward recalls as “a nice January day,” he and fellow trooper Cory Tucker were working traffic duty on Highway 67 in Butler County, Missouri, when Troop E radio advised them of a motor vehicle accident: the driver was trapped in the vehicle, which was fully engulfed in flames!
ANDREW: A car ran off the right side of the road, struck a culvert, became airborne, and then engulfed in flames.
RANDY: Wow!
ANDREW: The training kicks in. During the Academy, we had a lot of training doing different scenarios and different things we have to do every day. And when I got this call, it was just like any other call. We get calls all the time that don’t pan out… and this one actually panned out! We’re trained to think on our feet, and just--when we see a situation, we have to take care of the problem at that time… no matter what it might be.
RANDY: However, pulling people out of burning vehicles is NOT part of the training! But that didn’t stop Andrew. There were bystanders on the scene, attempting to free the woman from her car, but there was another problem.
ANDREW: Somebody at the scene told me that her foot was trapped under the brake pedal! She was lying across the console in the passenger seat. So I then went back around to the driver’s side, using my fire extinguisher--and the flames just kept getting worse. So I knew it was then or never, and so I went in head-first through the driver window--
RANDY: Now, was it open, or did you have to break it?
ANDREW: No, her driver window was down. So I went through the driver window, located the brake pedal, and found her foot under the brake pedal. When I went in the car, my initial thought was to bring her out with me. And I grabbed hold of her ankle and jerked it, and she let out a scream--so there was the first sign to me that she was still alive. And then I felt a tug on my gun-belt, which was actually Cory Tucker pulling ME out of the car!
RANDY: “Get outta there, it’s filling up with smoke! Are you CRAZY?!” Was that his thinking?
ANDREW (grinning): Yes, that was COMPLETELY his thinking! (Randy laughs) So I was pulled out of the car… and I remember regaining my breath for just a split second. I then went back to the passenger side, entered the car again, grabbed hold of her, and with the assistance of bystanders she was freed out of the car. And then shortly after, the car just “popped” and completely went up in smoke.
RANDY: And what kind of condition was she in at this point?
ANDREW: She had a broken leg, and of course the ankle. Besides that, she was actually in pretty good shape! Something had to be done, and I just happened to do the right thing. Then when we got back to the office, and we watched Trooper Tucker’s video--and I actually saw what happened--it took my BREATH away! I was like, “Wow!!”
RANDY: And on November 19 of this year, Governor Nixon bestowed the Medal of Valor on Trooper Andrew Ward.
ANDREW: It’s an honor. It feel privileged to receive the award. But I was just doing my job. I happened to be put there in the right place at the right time.
RANDY: You feel like you’re going to stay with this for a while?
ANDREW: Yes, I have NO intention of leaving the Patrol--I love my job. God put me in there for a reason.