Pfc. Damon Towne Finally Awarded for Heroism

In the spring of 1999, I can remember like it was last month. This particular month was raining constantly, keeping me indoors. During this time, I had spent enough time reminiscing on high school friends. My curiosity continued to wander, and it was one person in particular that intrigued me the most.

His name was Damon, and when I had first met him, we were in the sixth grade. Even then, young Damon would decree, "When I graduate high school, I'm going into the Marines." Year after year, he would state the same line repeatedly, and every year, I encouraged him. His remarkable personality and demeanor, he wasn't like like most high school boys, he was very respectable, sweet, and a great sense of humor.

After graduating, Damon enlisted into the Marine Corps with a life long friend. He graduated boot camp with top honors and came home on leave to go fishing with his stepfather and former co-worker/ friends. On May 26, Damon and his fishing buddies went to Kremmling lake where it was supposed to a good time, that turned into a horrific tragedy.

It was the first week of June when I had attempted to contact Damon's family in hopes of retrieving a current mailing address to get in touch with him. That phone call was one that I'll never forget, when Damon's mother, Melinda, informed me of a tragic accident that had occurred with Damon. A bad windy storm happened and the boat carrying all of the men had capsized.

One man, (who was also a friend of Damon's and had recently undergone heart surgery ) was almost powerless to swim to safety. Damon removed his life jacket , giving it to his defenseless friend and helped him to shore. He helped another friend to shore when Damon swam back out to the open water to retrieve his step dad, (not knowing that he was already on land) when his head was struck by a blunt object, (possibly the boat) and sank.

The next few weeks I remained optimistic that Damon would be found, and even found alive. Divers from both the police department, as well as the Marine Corps search turned up fruitless. More frustration added to the fire when Damon's story was published in the Rocky Mountain News leaving family, friends, and readers asking, "Where's Damon?"

Five weeks after the boating accident, I had received another phone call that I won't forget. Another fellow classmate who I had contacted regarding the news of the missing Marine insisted on meeting up with me. I couldn't help but ask what it was all about, when he responded, "They found him, Lisa." I think it was then where I felt that pang of hurt, where I felt I already knew the answer to the fate of Damon.

Once again, I saw my friend's picture in the Rocky Mountain News covering the story on the efforts of recovering Damon's body. A hero had emerged, bringing friends to assist with the search that used an underwater camera to locate him. The hero: the victim's mother, Melinda Towne. His very own mother had gone up to the lake to do what authorities and trained professionals could not do and brought her oldest son home.

His funeral held numerous familiar faces from the school days. The entire Safeway store where Damon had worked closed down to pay their respects to munificent friend. Along with his family, co-workers, friends, and fiancee, a Scottish bagpipe player and the Marine Corps paid tribute, something anyone who knew Damon, known he would've loved it. A word that I would use to describe Damon; loyal. There was no way any individual could make up a person like Damon, a man who was quiet, but not shy. He was a man who was never aggressive, nor could I recall him protesting or complaining. A man who would go with the flow with a wonderful sense of humor, and would always lend a helping hand, to anybody. Through my eyes, he was a man who deserved much more in his life than what he had gotten. After the recovery of Damon Towne, the camera used to locate him had been dubbed, "The Towne Camera", and has been used to find other drowned victims. Yet, eight years later, his heroine mother stepped in the public one more time.

On November 19, Congressman Mark Udall awarded both Pfc. Towne, as well as his late great uncle, John Roy, medals for their bravery. After presenting the bronze medal to his great aunt, Dorothy, Congressman Udall offered his condolences to both women, and had a heartwarming statement to Melinda.

"In the many descriptions of courage, one is that courage isn't the absence of fear, but the will power to overcome it, courage is fear that has its prayers. Damon was somebody who we greatly, greatly admired ... his example is a very, very powerful one."

It has been nearly ten years since my friend has passed away. Throughout all of these years, through all of the happy and sad times, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of Damon. I've lost a good friend, and gained new friends, his mother and family in return. As a parent, she is the one who I think of when asked to describe what the word, 'strength' means. Damon lived his life doing exactly what he wanted, his will and determination, and how had pushed forward until his untimely demise.

And it shows exactly where he had learned it from. The strength of a mother, who would never give in, nor would ever give up; it was Melinda's motherly love who had raised the fine man who gave his life for others and will missed tremendously. In the midst of this tragedy, forever we are grateful to have known a good man like Damon Towne, and he will never be forgotten.