Orlando man receives hero award
Published: July 27, 2006
Heroism has its benefits.
For the Orlando man who pulled two men from the wreckage of a plane that crashed at Dubsdread Golf Course, they include an international award and $4,000 he can spend on whatever he wishes. Like most heroes, Brandon “Bosco” Cashen didn’t expect acclaim when he leaped into the cockpit of the crumpled single-engine plane January 11, 2005. It had just crashed into a concrete electrical pole as it was trying to make an emergency landing on the course’s 18th green.
Cashen, 27, stayed with the wreckage and lowered crash victims Steve Schieber and Dan Lawlor to rescuers below after cutting their safety belts with a utility knife. Lawlor died in surgery, but Schieber survived.
For his bold act, Cashen was one of 15 people nationally to be awarded a Carnegie Medal for Heroism by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission earlier this month.
Cashen said he was glad he did something to help.
“I thought the whole ‘15 minute’ thing would die out in a few days,” Cashen said.
After an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, 15 minutes became weeks. They turned to months when A Current Affair re-aired the interview.
That acclaim led talk-show host Oprah Winfrey to organize a surprise reunion between Cashen and Schieber on her show. Now Cashen is in reruns.
“Every now and then, when the reruns come on, I’ll get a call about it,” Cashen said.
News of the award from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission came about two months ago, after investigators from the organization interviewed those involved in the incident to determine whether Cashen earned the award.
“I thought it was very nice of them,” Cashen said.
More than 9,000 awards have been given out by the fund since its 1904 inception, said Doug Chambers, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh-based organization.
Some recipients have died while committing their heroic acts. An Iowa man who received the award posthumously this month died after he was overcome by gas from manure while trying to save his employer.
The organization often finds potential recipients through a news-clipping service, and heard about Cashen through media accounts, Chambers said.
“He did what everyone else does who gets the Carnegie Medal for Heroism,” Chambers said.
“He risked his life to an extraordinary degree for the sake of the life of another.”
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