WILLIAMS-JOLYN

On May 9, 1999, then Seaman Jolyn Williams, USCG, was with three shipmates visiting the Sacred Falls State Park on Oahu, Hawaii, when a landslide occurred which dumped tons of boulders and rocks on dozens of unsuspecting hikers and campers, killing eight people and injuring 32 others.  Williams and her companions were uninjured but immediately disregarded the danger to themselves by entering the landslide area to offer assistance.  For her efforts, Williams was honored with the Coast Guard Heroism Medal, the organization’s highest peacetime decoration presented to honorees who have performed voluntary acts of heroism and courage in the face of danger to themselves.

Coast  Guard  Heroism Medal  Citation
 

Seaman Jolyn Williams, United States Coast Guard, was awarded the Coast Guard Medal for heroism at the risk of life on 9 May 1999, for her heroic rescue efforts following a landslide at Sacred Falls State Park, Oahu, Hawaii.  At the time, Williams was stationed as a Seaman on the USCGC JARVIS, home ported in Honolulu.  She and three other JARVIS crewmembers were hiking in the park when the landslide occurred, dumping tons of rocks on dozens of unsuspecting hikers and campers. The catastrophic event killed eight people and injured many others.  The four JARVIS crew members demonstrated a total disregard for their own personal safety by re-entering the landslide area to offer assistance.  Seaman Williams established a makeshift triage area away from the danger zone.  She assisted many injured people for more than three hours by bandaging bleeding cuts and applying pressure to wounds until tourniquets could be applied.  She also helped prepare the injured for transportation on body boards, supplied water to both the injured and rescue workers, and comforted a fatally injured child.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)