Havre de Grace Man Honored for Heroic Boat Crash Rescue

Petty Officer 2nd Class Bradley T. Bishop of Havre de Grace was honored this week for his handling of a potentially deadly situation in Anne Arundel County last summer.

Bishop was on a 45-foot response boat stationed near the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis on July 4, 2014, when two boats collided nearby, according to a statement from the U.S. Coast Guard.

Approximately 600 boats were in the vicinity for the Fourth of July fireworks, and the crew had to navigate through congested waterways to aid the victims, the statement said.

Eight people were on one of the boats, which two Coast Guard members boarded to tend to the wounded, the agency reported.

Bishop triaged the patients, applying pressure to help stabilize one victim with a potentially life-threatening head injury, the Coast Guard reported.

He also cared for a boater who was in shock and another who had leg wounds, the report said.

The Coast Guard members towed the damaged boat alongside their vessel to a local pier, where emergency medical personnel were waiting, according to the report.

One person was airlifted for treatment and another was taken by ambulance to a hospital, officials reported.

“Independence Day is a day of family, patriotism and general good will,” Bishop said in a statement. “This day could have been horrible. I am grateful for the training and to have been there for this family.”

On Jan. 23, Bishop received the Coast Guard Achievement Medal at the Fleet Reserve Club in Annapolis, an award recognizing a “specific achievement of a superlative nature” in which an officer demonstrates leadership and professionalism, according to the Coast Guard.

Photo Credit: Petty Officer 2nd Class David R. Marin/U.S. Coast Guard.