Hernando cadet will receive high honor for saving life

SPRING HILL – A Hernando County Air Force Junior ROTC cadet will receive his core’s second-highest honor for rescuing a stranger last month.

Joshua Reyes’ superiors will present him with the Silver Valor Medal for saving a Micah Robinson, a fellow cadet who stumbled onto a bed of cacti during an orienteering competition in March.

“I was just doing what I would expect anyone else to do,” Reyes said.. “To have people come up and say how proud of me they are – that just makes me feel great.”

Reyes, 16 and a sophomore at F.W. Springstead High School, helped lead Robinson out of the Withlacoochee State Forest. Robinson, 15 from Tallahassee, had also been taking part in the compeition. He had quills in his hands and mouth when Reyes discovered him and was having a reaction to it all. Doctors told the two if Reyes wouldn’t have been there, Robinson’s throat could’ve closed less than 20 minutes later.

“If it wasn’t for him … I probably would’ve suffocated, basically,” Robinson told News Channel 8 via Skype last month.

The only medal with greater prestige in Reyes’ core is the Gold Valor Medal, which is given to cadets who risk their lives to save another person.

Reyes will officially receive the silver medal on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. The ceremony is at the theater directly across from Springstead High on Mariner Boulevard in Spring Hill.