Gold valor medals don’t come easily in Prince William County. The county’s Chamber of Commerce, which awards police officers and firefighters annually with valor medals, has handed out only 16 in 26 years.
This year, however, the chamber awarded two. Lt. William Cox and Officer William Dalton, both with the county police department, joined the ranks of gold medalists last week when the chamber recognized the men for risking their lives to save a drowning diver.
A third officer, 1st Sgt. Mike Hustawayte, received a silver valor award for his role in the rescue.
“It’s nice to be recognized, but like I’ve said, it’s not about me,” said Cox, a 32-year veteran of the department. “It’s about everybody that reacted that day to save this guy.”
Cox and Dalton had just stepped out of the new dive suits they’d been testing last April at Fredericksburg Quarry when they heard that a man from another dive team was struggling in the water.
The pair jumped back in without hesitation, despite the water’s frigid 42-degree temperature. The men swam about 40 foot to the drowning diver, who at that point wasn’t moving or making audible breathing sounds. The men grabbed the diver and began to make their way underwater to the shore.
Hustawayte eventually jumped in and helped get the diver to shore. He was then taken to a hospital and made a full recovery.
“The diver came to me a couple days later and he basically said that he had resigned to the fact that he was going to drown,” Cox said.
