Nov. 14, 2023 AURORA, OR – Pacific Region Commander Col Virginia Nelson presented a Bronze Medal of Valor to a Civil Air Patrol officer and U.S. Air Force officer Joseph L. Boyd, Jr. on Tuesday night at a ceremony in his home town. “Civil Air Patrol gives the Bronze Medal of Valor only once every year or two,” said Col Virginia Nelson, Pacific Region Commander. “It goes through a lengthy review and approval process.” The award stems from a night on June 22, 2020, when 1st Lt Boyd discovered the Prescott, AZ, fourplex he was living in was on fire. Lt Boyd saw flames out his kitchen window. He leapt into action immediately, notified 911 and then pounded on his neighbors’ doors to help them escape the fire. He ran down the hall to the apartment that was on fire and got the occupant out of the dwelling to safety. He ran downstairs to get some air, then back upstairs to keep pounding on doors and getting people to safety. It was such a spur of the moment action that he was barefoot and only wearing basketball shorts. His only other personal item was his cell phone. Prescott Fire Department recognized his efforts on October 9, 2020, presenting him a Certificate of Appreciation. It states: “. . . you distinguished yourself by taking prompt and selfless action towards alerting and assisting occupants within an apartment complex that was on fire. Your selfless actions most certainly were life-saving for one or more of the apartment complex occupants. Furthermore, your actions were of great aid to the professional firefighters.” Lt Boyd was a student at Embry Riddle Aeronautical College in Prescott. He was working on a bachelor’s degree. He was at that time a member of the Oregon Wing of Civil Air Patrol and a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps based at Embry Riddle. Today he is a 25-year-old First Lieutenant in the Air Force stationed at Joint Base San Antonio, formerly known as Lackland Air Force Base, in San Antonio, Texas. He is also a member of the Oregon Wing staff for Civil Air Patrol and serves as the Information Technology Director, a job he can do remotely from Texas. At the ceremony attended by his parents, Lt Col Joseph Boyd and Lillian Ann Boyd, an adult member with no rank, Lt Boyd answered questions by the cadets of the Aurora Composite Squadron who attended the event. “I knew how to act because of the training of Civil Air Patrol and ROTC,” he said. “I learned how to act under pressure.” Lt Boyd was in CAP eight years as a cadet joining in 2011 and had achieved the rank of Cadet Captain. When he turned 21 he joined as an adult member. The fire was a kitchen grease fire. A neighbor was apparently frying something and fell asleep. The fire caused enough damage that the roof and the back wall of the building had to be replaced. Firefighters removed all of Boyd’s belongings from his apartment which was saturated with smoke, causing it to be cleaned and rebuilt. Lt Boyd was home celebrating his recent marriage to college classmate Marilyn Valencia. The family event was on Saturday.