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Press
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FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
October 30, 2001
CONTACT:
Matt Stout
(301) 713-3125
COMMERCE DEPARTMENT AWARDS
GOLD MEDAL IN HEROISM TO LCDR MARK
PICKETT
The U.S. Department of Commerce has
awarded its Gold Medal in Heroism to LCDR Mark H. Pickett
for "his exemplary courage and heroism in saving the lives
of two U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) employees after the
capsizing of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary
R/V Ballena on November 4, 2000."
LCDR Pickett received the Gold Medal
Award at the 53rd Annual Department of Commerce Awards
Program held recently in Washington, DC. The citation
states that, after the capsizing, "At significant personal
risk, he returned to the icy waters to save the lives of his
crew, USGS chief scientist Dr. Guy R. Cochran and USGS
electronics/special projects technician Michael E.
Boyle.
The R/V Ballena was engaged in
routine sidescan sonar surveys near the coast when a rogue
wave capsized the vessel, briefly trapping the men inside.
After deployment and subsequent abandonment of a life raft,
LCDR Pickett swam ashore and then returned to bring in both
men, saving their lives."
LCDR Pickett, a NOAA Corps officer for
18 years, resides in Monterey and is an oceanographer at
NOAA's Pacific Fisheries Environmental Laboratory. Donald L.
Evans, Secretary of Commerce, grants the Gold Medal--the
Department's highest honorary award--for extraordinary
achievements in support of the Department's critical
objectives. These achievements have a significant
beneficial effect on the nation, and sometimes the
world.
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