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Coast guard honors
Sacred Falls heroes

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

Four Coast Guard personnel -- former shipmates of the cutter Jarvis -- were honored yesterday for their role in the 1999 Mother's Day rock slide at Sacred Falls that claimed the lives of eight people.

Honored were Astrubal and Angela Cruz, Jolyn Williams and William Culnon, who were hiking in the valley when boulders and rocks came down the narrow gorge, injuring 32 people.

The Coast Guard Medal is the organization's highest peacetime decoration and its honorees must have performed a voluntary act of heroism in the face of danger to themselves.

Culnon was cited for entering the pool below the falls while the rocks were still falling to rescue a man with a head injury and to assist another who had a compound fracture and was struggling to stay afloat.

Petty Officer Astrubal Cruz went to the aid of a woman whose leg had been crushed, stopped the bleeding with a towel and applied a crude splint. He is credited with saving the woman's life.

His wife, Angela, who later that year left the Coast Guard, helped a man, and a child whose foot had been nearly severed. Angela Cruz then helped another woman whose wrists were crushed and carried the woman's 9-year-old child 2.2 miles down the trail. She then went back up the trail picked up another 2-year-old child and carried him to safety.

Williams established a makeshift triage away from the danger zone, gathering towels and clothing to use as bandages.

For more than three hours, Williams bandaged bleeding cuts and applied tourniquets.

Since the incident, Culnon and Williams have transferred to mainland Coast Guard stations, with only Astrubal Cruz still serving on the Jarvis. Yesterday's ceremony turned into a Jarvis reunion since the entire ship's company was present for the ceremony.

More than a year after the disaster, the state park remains closed.