By Stephanie Froese

High honour for former PA resident

Jun 1, 2011 | 12:50 PM

It is the highest medal that can be won by a member of the Canadian Armed Forces who is not in actual combat, said Carmen Bibby.

The Prince Albert man was talking about the Meritorious Service Medal that will be presented to his son.

Sgt. Lee Bibby, who was born and raised in Prince Albert, will be receiving the Meritorious Service Medal from Gov. Gen. David Johnston at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on June 10.

“It’s basically presented to members of the public and Canadian Forces for doing something extra ordinary or very difficult,” Bibby said.

He is a search and rescue technician in Cold Lake Alberta and being recognized after a rescue performed in Ontario’s Killarney provincial park.

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Like most of their missions it started on a “dark and stormy night” and their task was to rescue an injured woman who was “basically on top of a mountain,” Bibby said.

After bad weather caused helicopter rescue attempts to fail, Bibby and his team boated to the base of the hill, took as much as they could carry and climbed to the injured woman. Bibby said when they reached her they were able to stabilize her and a helicopter was eventually able to pick them up. Bibby said the whole thing took about 19 hours.

Although he said the award is quite the honour, Bibby said he’s slightly embarrassed to be getting such recognition.

“A lot of our guys go out and don’t get recognized. They put themselves in harm’s way like many service people do, especially with the involvement in Afghanistan.”

Carmen said he is very proud of his son.

“He’s able to make very sound decisions in a very short period of time. I was privileged to witness another rescue mission in Ontario. Actually the mission went into Quebec and I was really impressed with the decision making ability of the whole team and particularly the teams lead with my son Lee,” Carmen said.

Bibby went to Carlton Comprehensive High School in Prince Albert. Upon graduation he said he really didn’t know what he wanted to do as a career so he decided to join the armed forces. His service included postings in Cypress, Somalia and Kosovo.

Bibby eventually transferred to the Air Force to join the Search and Rescue branch.

sfroese@panow.com