Daddy's Commendation Medal

Last week Travis received a Commendation Medal for saving 6 people back in July. The 6 people had apparently been hiking on the beach and when they started headed back they hadn't planned on the tide coming up as far as it did and they found themselves stuck between the cliffs and rocky waters. It was not a good night for this to happen since it was terribly foggy that night (I mean, it's always foggy here in the evenings but this night in particular was especially bad). The pilot (on the very left) said it was like flying in a closet of darkness--they couldn't even see anything around them and had to fly under the Golden Gate bridge (instead of over) 6 times. There was communication errors with the rescue swimmer (second to right) since they had to get so close to the cliffs and everything was echoing off of the bluffs. Travis also accidently kicked the trail line by accident out of the aircraft which would could have hurt the people and swimmer below so he quickly grabbed it and in doing so, fractured his finger and had to eventually have surgery on it. They also nearly backed into a cliff which scares me to even talk about. Just so many things that they did amazingly well proved to be heroes that day. I am not sure what would have happened to those people if they had not been saved that day. The cove was small and remote, no boats could have reached them as it was very rocky at the shore, and the tide was still coming up. Swimming in the water here without wetsuits or anything is definitely a big no-no and you will only last about 20 minutes without suffering from hypothermia. The water is freezing here. The cliffs too high to climb and no boat able to reach you, along with a tide still coming up is not a good situation to find yourself in and I am glad that they saved them that day. What would have happened if they had backed into that cliff? Or missed the Golden Gate bridge when flying under it? So scary to even think about. If you've ever been to San Francisco you would know just how thick the fog can get here, especially on the water and by the ocean. Travis and the swimmer and co-pilot all received a Commendation Medal (3 points) and the pilot received an air medal for their work. They had the ceremony last Friday (Dec 20th) and it was awesome seeing him up there being recognized for something so amazing. Kourtney wouldn't let Daddy get his medal alone though and insisted that she run up there by his feet when he received it. It was either that or have her scream and throw a tantrum so I think I made the right call. The Admiral had said it was ok beforehand too as he has kids too and knows how fidgety they can be. After that we joined everybody for a huge Christmas feast that was nothing short of delicious. After that we did some press pictures and even got them to take a family picture which I was super excited about and turned out pretty good--especially with two toddlers that LOVE to play in "Daddy's helicopter". Anyway, here are some pictures!