"GoArmy" earns highest-level civilian decoration for saving a woman and two children
Two Sailors and one civilian received the Distinguished Service Award during a ceremony held in the Bop Hope Theater at Marine Corps Air Station, Miramar Oct. 2.
For Lottery Post members, it is a special moment of pride, as one of their own earned the highest-level civilian distinction.
Electronics Technician 1st Class (SW) Verlon Cox, who goes by the member name "GoArmy" at Lottery Post, Mineman 1st Class (SW) Ralph Bishop and Clarence B. Good received their award from San Diego County Sheriff's Department for saving the lives of others while risking their own during an incident that occurred in August.
During the afternoon of Aug. 26, in a residential area of Spring Valley, Calif., Cox and his roommate, Bishop, responded to the request of their neighbor asking for help.
The woman informed the Sailors her fiancé was unstable and would not allow her two sons, one 17-months old and the other 5-years old, to leave her apartment.
Upon hearing children were involved, Cox took a canister of oleoresin capsicum (OC), commonly known as pepper spray, and he and Bishop went to investigate the situation.
"I was shocked," said Cox. "I didn't really understand what I was seeing."
When they arrived at the apartment, they discovered the fiancé holding the younger of the two children and watched him grab a large knife from the kitchen area.
"I couldn't believe this was happening; I just didn't believe it," said Bishop. "This is stuff you see on TV or read in the newspaper."
Cox tried to convince the assailant to let the child go, but the man stabbed himself in the neck and started bleeding profusely. The woman became hysterical and begged him to release her child. For a brief moment, the man was distracted, and Cox grabbed the 17-month old child from the assailant.
The woman took the 17-month old child and fled to a bedroom. Cox helped the woman and child escape through the bedroom window; however, the 5-year old was still in the apartment with the assailant.
Bishop and Cox returned to the apartment in attempt to convince the man to let the child go. While at the front door, Good, a carpenter who was working in the vicinity, joined the two Sailors to assist with the struggle.
The assailant finally opened the door, now holding the 5-year old boy in one hand and a 10-inch knife in the other.
The Sailors and Good stood by as the assailant began stabbing himself again, this time in the chest while refusing to release the child.
Good pulled his hammer from his utility belt and told the man to release the child.
The assailant threatened to kill the child and raised the knife to his throat.
At this moment Cox yelled, "OC, OC," and within a second, Cox blasted the canister of pepper spray into the assailant's face, and Bishop grabbed the child.
Good and Cox distracted the assailant's attention long enough for Bishop to flee the area with the children and mother and took them to his apartment.
"When I came back to the apartment after taking them to my place, I couldn't find Cox," said Bishop. "That's the only time I got scared, was when I thought something had happened to my shipmate."
Meanwhile, after regaining his bearings, the assailant wielded his knife again and went after Good. As a result, Good was stabbed three times in the attack.
"Clarence [Good] is a really good guy," said Cox. "He had nothing to do with what was going on, and he still didn't hesitate to help us. The knife that he got stabbed with was meant for me."
Cox then worked simultaneously to end the assailant's attack on Good while clearing away a crowd of onlookers to prevent the man from stabbing anyone else.
"I'm over here, I'm over here," said Cox.
By yelling and screaming at the assailant, Cox ended the attack on Good but now, the attention was on Cox. He only hoped he could outrun the assailant.
Fortunately, a deputy sheriff arrived on the scene just as Cox started to tire from running and the assailant was about to make contact.
The deputy sheriff drew his weapon and ordered the man to the ground, ending the ordeal.
"If not for the heroic actions of these three men, two little boys could very likely be dead," said Sheriff Bill Kolender of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.
Cox and Bishop are assigned to USS Freedom (LCS 1), the Navy's first littoral combat ship. They are currently stationed in San Diego, Freedom's future homeport.
"These Sailors were presented with a horrific situation, and they responded to it with the Navy core values," said Cmdr. Don Gabrielson, Freedom's commanding officer. "They didn't have to do what they did, but they did, and they saved lives."
Lottery Post member Verlon Cox ("GoArmy") is pictured third from the left.
The three heros, who saved a woman and her two children are: USS Freedom (LCS 1) Sailors, Mineman 1st Class Ralph Bishop, left, and Electronics Technician 1st Class Verlon Cox, and civilian Clarence Good. Each received the Distinguished Service Award, the highest-level civilian decoration.
Mass Comm. Specialist Seaman Apprentice Shannon K. Cassidy, Fleet Public Affairs Center, Pacific
Congratulations GoArmy for such a good deed in deed. I read the story last night in Bluegrass's Blog and made a comment, but somehow it's not there today.
Anyway, I'm proud to know that real heros do exist! "Go Verlon"
Quote: Originally posted by Litebets27 on Oct 16, 2007
Congratulations GoArmy for such a good deed in deed. I read the story last night in Bluegrass's Blog and made a comment, but somehow it's not there today.
Anyway, I'm proud to know that real heros do exist! "Go Verlon"
litebets
Maybe you did not click the button to save it, because I have not deleted any comments, and nobody else could have.
Todd, many thanks for giving this article the publicity that it truly deserves !
Verlon and I have talked a number of times since the incident occurred and it was a very frightening event even for someone as well trained as he and his shipmate are, I understand that all of the people involved were literally covered in blood and each had to undergo extensive testing to determine if anyone contracted AIDS or any other disease as a result, thankfully, all tests have now come back negative.
Verlon expects to be transferred to Green Bay, Wisconsin sometime around Christmas and is hoping to be back on the net at that time.....
I'm sure that all of the military and X-military reading this article can just imagine the forms that had to be filled out in a case such as this !
Best wishes to each of you and I'm sure Verlon appreciates your comments also !
This is what separates men from other men. Cogratulations to you and your shipmate and the other person involved. You have my respect as well as everyone else's here at LP.
Quote: Originally posted by MADDOG10 on Oct 16, 2007
Go Army,
This is what separates men from other men. Cogratulations to you and your shipmate and the other person involved. You have my respect as well as everyone else's here at LP.
Quote: Originally posted by MADDOG10 on Oct 16, 2007
Go Army,
This is what separates men from other men. Cogratulations to you and your shipmate and the other person involved. You have my respect as well as everyone else's here at LP.
My hats off to you and your friends......!
i'm with you MADDOG....................way to go goarmy
Go army,Its people like you who makes the world a better place to live in,thanks to you and all those who help that lady and children in time of need,we are so proud of you,your family at the lottery post.Todd thanks to you for bringing it to our attention.
Verlon (GoArmy) is one of the few people i have had personal contact with on lottery post i liked him from the very first time we started to communicate. I could tell from talking to him he was an exceptional man. I am very happy everything turned out for the best and that no one was seriously injured.
It takes and exceptional man/woman to put themselves in harms way they are true hero's for coming to the assistance of the mother and children. To face someone with a knife once is a hard pill to swallow to do it twice is pure superman stuff. I am also glad that Ralph and Clarence were there to lend assistance in this matter.
Quote: Originally posted by MADDOG10 on Oct 16, 2007
Go Army,
This is what separates men from other men. Cogratulations to you and your shipmate and the other person involved. You have my respect as well as everyone else's here at LP.
My hats off to you and your friends......!
Couldn't have said it any better. It gave me a warm feeling to read this and to know there are still people who will step up to the plate.
Thanks for all of the kind words that you put out there for me. The truth is that the 26th of August was without a doubt the worst thing that I have ever seen in my life. The story is very close but there are a few discrepancies with it. The guy cut his own throat in three different places and he cut it so deep that he looked like he had gills. He cut his throat while he was still in the house and then he ran outside and lunged at me with a ten inch butcher knife. When he came at me I immediately went for the OC spray and thank God that I did. When he was unsuccessful at stabbing me he raised the knife in the air to stab the five year old (I wont put his name here cause the kid has seen enough in his life and doesn't need any more drama), that is when I sprayed him. The Navy made us get sprayed with OC and if you have never been sprayed then you cant imagine the pain. It is litterally hell on earth, it is as close to liquid lava as you can get. I was the first to complain about having to go thru it but the training saved my life. The spray got on everyone there including me but because of the previous exposure I knew what to expect and worked thru it.
Bob told the truth about us having to be put on HIV meds, but it was a precautionary measure until the Coroner could get his results back. He turned up negative so that was a complete relief. The meds are the worse things that you could ever take, they really have some hellacious side effects that are so bad that I wont put them here but we had to do it. I had broke my toe during the melee when Ralph was getting the boy from him but the meds side effects overshadowed it and the toe healed................I only hope that the boys and the mother can as well but I doubt it and it makes me sad. The 5 year old was covered in blood to the point that you couldn't tell what race he was and luckily there were two people there that took him up and cleaned him off, Wendy and Mike.
My Savior that day was Deputy Sheriff Weber with the San Diego Sheriff's Dept. I was lucky enough to get to meet him at the award ceremony but I was speechless. What do you say to a man that has saved your life? He showed up right when the guy had came at me the third time and drew his gun on him and made him drop the knife. Deputy Weber is the true hero for this day's event in my mind. He ended the madness and made the community safe again. He is on my mind quite often as well as the mother and her two kids. I hope that they all are safe from this day on and live a nice long life. Not only did the Deputy get the knife away but I saw him later trying to stauch the bleeding and save the man's life. Whether he should of or not is still a debate in my mind but he did his job.........to protect and serve and I respect the hell out of that. By the way, Deputy Weber's name never made it into any papers except for here yet he deals with stuff like this on a daily basis. Him and others like him make our cities safe on a daily basis and have the utmost of my respect. I was effected by the events of that day and I only dealt with madness for seven minutes.............they do it 24/7. That takes some hellacious men.
Domestic Violence is totally incurable, it is a disease that only get worse with age and eventually someone's death is involved. I cant even listen to the songs that promote it because I see the singers as complete idiots who haven't seen what I have seen. I will assure you that if they had walked in my shoes they would pull the songs from the shelf and end the need to make domestic violence acceptable in society.
This is already to long so I will end it here. I hope that you all stay safe and win tons of money. I havent really got the time to gamble now and I wasn't that great at it when I did. You guys take care and thanks for the post Todd.
Mr. Cox you are a very humble man. I just wanted to throw in my own kudos. I know how it goes myself with these incidents and it can be very traumatizing. This is a feel-good story but the emotions in situations like these are anything but.
That child doesn't yet have the capacity to understand what you guys did for him but I'm sure one day he will. As for you; I hope YOU all know that the actions you took requires special kinds of people. The award is very well deserved.
On a side note I TOTALLY agree with your assessment of DV in music. DV ruins lives and breeds new generations of violent criminals and they don't seem to give a damn. Sad indeed.
if the world had more people like mr. cox it would be a much better place.this generation has the wrong role models and heroes.verlon is that rare example of a true hero.if each young person had a person like this to look up to imagine how much better off the world would be......
Bob shared the link to this post with me. GoArmy I don't think we've met yet. But I wanted to tell you this is a amazing story and proof of the goodness of men. You have 1 monster trying to hurt the world's most precious gift-a child. But thanks to 4 brave men he was stopped. My hats off to all of you. Thank you
I was just amazed by this story. Congratulations GoArmy!!!
You are everyone's hero.
Way to go,Goarmy!!
America is lucky to have you & those like you in our military!
Totally awesome!!!!! Congratulatioins!!! Hope the next time we all congratulate you is when you're a jackpot winner!!
"Pecan Valley", the whole world is full of "nuts", Way to go "GoArmy", I wonder that it is not "GoNavy".
Take care and good luck.
Congratulations GoArmy for such a good deed in deed. I read the story last night in Bluegrass's Blog and made a comment, but somehow it's not there today.
Anyway, I'm proud to know that real heros do exist! "Go Verlon"
litebets
Maybe you did not click the button to save it, because I have not deleted any comments, and nobody else could have.
I may not have. It was after 1am and I was about to fall asleep. I thought it had gone through.
It doesn't matter, as long as "Verlon" knows that we all are proud of his actions and happy that he didn't sustain any injuries while doing so.
litebets
this is a great story. good job GoArmy
Todd, many thanks for giving this article the publicity that it truly deserves !
Verlon and I have talked a number of times since the incident occurred and it was a very frightening event even for someone as well trained as he and his shipmate are, I understand that all of the people involved were literally covered in blood and each had to undergo extensive testing to determine if anyone contracted AIDS or any other disease as a result, thankfully, all tests have now come back negative.
Verlon expects to be transferred to Green Bay, Wisconsin sometime around Christmas and is hoping to be back on the net at that time.....
I'm sure that all of the military and X-military reading this article can just imagine the forms that had to be filled out in a case such as this !
Best wishes to each of you and I'm sure Verlon appreciates your comments also !
Bob
bg
Full Ahead to you GoArmy and your shipmate and Good friend, and the Sheriff's Dept. for getting there in time.
Go Army,
This is what separates men from other men. Cogratulations to you and your shipmate and the other person involved. You have my respect as well as everyone else's here at LP.
My hats off to you and your friends......!
ditto, GoArmy. Good work!
wow, there are still people who care for others in this world............
GoArmy and the other two men, you are most certainly a hero in my eyes.
True hero - Verlon - you're a prince. xxxooo Em
i'm with you MADDOG....................way to go goarmy
Go army,Its people like you who makes the world a better place to live in,thanks to you and all those who help that lady and children in time of need,we are so proud of you,your family at the lottery post
.Todd thanks to you for bringing it to our attention.
Verlon (GoArmy) is one of the few people i have had personal contact with on lottery post i liked him from the very first time we started to communicate. I could tell from talking to him he was an exceptional man. I am very happy everything turned out for the best and that no one was seriously injured.
It takes and exceptional man/woman to put themselves in harms way they are true hero's for coming to the assistance of the mother and children. To face someone with a knife once is a hard pill to swallow to do it twice is pure superman stuff. I am also glad that Ralph and Clarence were there to lend assistance in this matter.
GoArmy, Ralph and Clarence you are a Super Dudes.
GoArmy,
Thanks for being there with the others in this familys time of need and taking command of the situation. Thanks also for your service to our country.
your a true hero verlon!!!!
Couldn't have said it any better. It gave me a warm feeling to read this and to know there are still people who will step up to the plate.
CONGRATULATIONS!! GoArmy! Well Done
WTG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To all here,
Thanks for all of the kind words that you put out there for me. The truth is that the 26th of August was without a doubt the worst thing that I have ever seen in my life. The story is very close but there are a few discrepancies with it. The guy cut his own throat in three different places and he cut it so deep that he looked like he had gills. He cut his throat while he was still in the house and then he ran outside and lunged at me with a ten inch butcher knife. When he came at me I immediately went for the OC spray and thank God that I did. When he was unsuccessful at stabbing me he raised the knife in the air to stab the five year old (I wont put his name here cause the kid has seen enough in his life and doesn't need any more drama), that is when I sprayed him. The Navy made us get sprayed with OC and if you have never been sprayed then you cant imagine the pain. It is litterally hell on earth, it is as close to liquid lava as you can get. I was the first to complain about having to go thru it but the training saved my life. The spray got on everyone there including me but because of the previous exposure I knew what to expect and worked thru it.
Bob told the truth about us having to be put on HIV meds, but it was a precautionary measure until the Coroner could get his results back. He turned up negative so that was a complete relief. The meds are the worse things that you could ever take, they really have some hellacious side effects that are so bad that I wont put them here but we had to do it. I had broke my toe during the melee when Ralph was getting the boy from him but the meds side effects overshadowed it and the toe healed................I only hope that the boys and the mother can as well but I doubt it and it makes me sad. The 5 year old was covered in blood to the point that you couldn't tell what race he was and luckily there were two people there that took him up and cleaned him off, Wendy and Mike.
My Savior that day was Deputy Sheriff Weber with the San Diego Sheriff's Dept. I was lucky enough to get to meet him at the award ceremony but I was speechless. What do you say to a man that has saved your life? He showed up right when the guy had came at me the third time and drew his gun on him and made him drop the knife. Deputy Weber is the true hero for this day's event in my mind. He ended the madness and made the community safe again. He is on my mind quite often as well as the mother and her two kids. I hope that they all are safe from this day on and live a nice long life. Not only did the Deputy get the knife away but I saw him later trying to stauch the bleeding and save the man's life. Whether he should of or not is still a debate in my mind but he did his job.........to protect and serve and I respect the hell out of that. By the way, Deputy Weber's name never made it into any papers except for here yet he deals with stuff like this on a daily basis. Him and others like him make our cities safe on a daily basis and have the utmost of my respect. I was effected by the events of that day and I only dealt with madness for seven minutes.............they do it 24/7. That takes some hellacious men.
Domestic Violence is totally incurable, it is a disease that only get worse with age and eventually someone's death is involved. I cant even listen to the songs that promote it because I see the singers as complete idiots who haven't seen what I have seen. I will assure you that if they had walked in my shoes they would pull the songs from the shelf and end the need to make domestic violence acceptable in society.
This is already to long so I will end it here. I hope that you all stay safe and win tons of money. I havent really got the time to gamble now and I wasn't that great at it when I did. You guys take care and thanks for the post Todd.
WTG!!!!!!!
Good Job My Brother. Job well done. Carry on.
God bless You.
CONGRAT's>>>>>>>>>>>>"GoArmy" on this
"WON"
LOL^^^^^ 2U
PSYKOMO
from one war veteran to another,congrats goarmy
wtg Goarmy, we need more heroes like you,
GoArmy, thanks very much for adding the personal details to the story. Hearing it from you makes it even more real and horrifying.
Good luck to you.
Mr. Cox you are a very humble man. I just wanted to throw in my own kudos. I know how it goes myself with these incidents and it can be very traumatizing. This is a feel-good story but the emotions in situations like these are anything but.
That child doesn't yet have the capacity to understand what you guys did for him but I'm sure one day he will. As for you; I hope YOU all know that the actions you took requires special kinds of people. The award is very well deserved.
On a side note I TOTALLY agree with your assessment of DV in music. DV ruins lives and breeds new generations of violent criminals and they don't seem to give a damn. Sad indeed.
That was a very inspirational story. I am happy that everything turned alright.
We here at LP are very proud of you.
Good job guys...
well i don't know who goarmy is but congratulations....
Congrats GoArmy!
We need more men like you!
if the world had more people like mr. cox it would be a much better place.this generation has the wrong role models and heroes.verlon is that rare example of a true hero.if each young person had a person like this to look up to imagine how much better off the world would be......
Thank you. WTG!!
Bob shared the link to this post with me. GoArmy I don't think we've met yet. But I wanted to tell you this is a amazing story and proof of the goodness of men. You have 1 monster trying to hurt the world's most precious gift-a child. But thanks to 4 brave men he was stopped. My hats off to all of you. Thank you
Great Job, not that there is anything funny about the article but I just noticed the sailors serve aboard the USS FREEDOM!!!