The modesty of true heroes

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March 2, 2010

Anonymous The Kokomo Tribune Tue Mar 02, 2010, 12:44 AM EST

THE ISSUE:Selfless acts in the face of danger.

OUR VIEW:Be grateful for ordinary, courageous people.

Gov. Mitch Daniels last month honored two Peru men who rescued a man from a burning vehicle. In presenting Nolan Sturch and Michael Brooks with the Governor’s Heroism Award, Daniels noted that in the few times he’s presented the award, one thing has stuck out.

“They have displayed courage, a willingness to put themselves at great risk and refuse to be impressed with themselves afterward,” the governor said.

Last week, a Logansport native exhibited that same courage, willingness and, yes, modesty in the national spotlight.

An employee of a glass company, Robin DeHaven was traveling to a work site when he saw a plane going down in a congested area of Austin, Texas. Knowing there was no airport in the vicinity, he headed that way.

“I thought maybe I could help, so I followed the smoke,” he told the Pharos-Tribune of Logansport.

A veteran of two tours of duty with the U.S. Army in Iraq, DeHaven arrived to find the building housing the Austin Service Center of the Internal Revenue Service in flames. A software engineer enraged with the IRS, the federal government and big business had committed suicide by flying the plane into the building.

Using a ladder off his truck, DeHaven climbed into the burning building and found five individuals trapped on the second floor. His ladder, however, wasn’t in a location that would make for an easy escape.

DeHaven and an IRS worker broke out a window to a ledge where the ladder would be more accessible and the group exited the building.

By then, firefighters were on the scene so DeHaven took his ladder and headed back to work.

Others found out about DeHaven’s actions and were soon contacting him and his employer. The Austin/Travis County EMS credited the actions of “many heroic” people who were at the scene for helping keep the number of victims to one.

But, as Daniels noted how ordinary heroes do, DeHaven downplayed his efforts.

“I don’t feel like a hero,” he told The Associated Press. “I was just trying to help.”

— The Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, and the Kokomo Tribune

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