Raleigh, N.C. — This week, Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) met with the families of North Carolinians who were awarded the Carnegie Medal, an honor bestowed by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission on “individuals in the United States and Canada who risk death or serious physical injury to an extraordinary degree saving or attempting to save the lives of others.”
Senator Budd said in a statement:
“The Carnegie Medal is inscribed with the Holy Words of John 15:13, ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ Those words perfectly describe the North Carolina citizens I met. It was nothing short of inspiring to hear their stories, hear their love for others, and their act of courage that brought them this honor. North Carolina is a special state to have produced such heroes. It was my absolute honor to spend time with them and thank them on behalf of our state.”
Below are stories of the two honorees with photos of their meeting with Senator Budd:
Daniel L. Weiss – Stokesdale, NC
Daniel L. Weiss saved a woman from burning, Greensboro, North Carolina, May 17, 2022. The woman, 29, was unconscious in her two-door coupe after an accident in which the car left a rural road and continued down an embankment for about 25 feet, where it struck two trees and caught fire. Weiss, 59, facility technician, was working on a utility pole nearby and responded. He reached the driver’s door and saw the woman in the driver’s seat, unconscious and slumped over the steering wheel. He reached in through the window opening and shook her in an attempt to wake her, but she did not respond. Weiss felt for a pulse, then noticed flames burning at the hood and spreading inside through the dashboard and air vents. He called to his co-worker for a fire extinguisher, which the man provided. Weiss emptied the extinguisher, but the flames at the hood continued to burn. He pulled on the handle of the driver’s door, but the door would not open. He then ran to the passenger side and fully entered the car, knelt on the front passenger seat, and turned the woman so she faced away from him. From behind, Weiss reached his arms around her front, clasped his hands together, and lifted her over the center console onto the passenger seat. Flames again burned through the air vents and spread toward the passenger side, coming within a foot of them. Weiss backed through the passenger door opening and fell with the woman to the ground. Two men responded and, with Weiss, carried her to a point about 20 feet away after seeing fire envelop the front seats. Flames grew to engulf the vehicle’s entire cab. The woman was not burned but was taken to the hospital for injuries sustained in the accident. Weiss suffered minor smoke inhalation and recovered.
Antwaun M. Jackson – Jacksonville, NC
Antwaun M. Jackson died helping to save two women and two children from drowning, North Topsail Beach, North Carolina, July 9, 2022. In the afternoon, several relatives, including two women, 33 and 24, and two girls, 7 and 6, were in the New River Inlet near its confluence with the Atlantic Ocean as the group of four reached a location where they no longer could touch the bottom. Suddenly struggling in a strong current after helping the girls use a bodyboard in shallow water, the women called out for help, alarming their relatives at the nearby beach, including Jackson, 40, production worker. A cousin of the two women and two girls, Jackson waded into the water, first moving toward other children closer to shore, then he swam to the area of the women, along with another female cousin, who helped the girls onto a bodyboard. The women recalled Jackson, who had moved beyond them, trying to push them from behind toward shore. Seeing a cluster of distressed swimmers, including Jackson, other men from separate groups also entered the water and helped to aid the women, girls, and female cousin back to safety in wadable water. All recovered without injury. Jackson remained stranded in the rough current and beyond the reach of some men and responding police officers, who took a rescue disc attached to a rope into the water which was thrown in Jackson’s direction to no effect. Ultimately, Jackson submerged, did not resurface, and could not be found by rescue crews that afternoon or in the days afterward. Jackson’s body has yet to be recovered.
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