Investiture of SGT Anthony Russell at Windsor Castle.<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\nSome readers will know Tony Russell who lives in Wenvoe. His inspirational story provides an insight into the skill, bravery and professionalism required in helicopter search and rescue. There was no better illustration than the brilliant rescue carried out by Tony and the crew of \u2018Rescue 193\u2019 on 7th July 2011. In recognition of their bravery and achievement that night, the helicopter team were honoured with several awards, notably the Edward and Maisie Lewis Award and The Prince Philip Helicopter Rescue Award. Tony\u2019s extraordinary personal efforts were recognised with the award of the prestigious Billy Deacon SAR Memorial Trophy. A particularly proud moment came when he was further honoured by Her Majesty Elizabeth II who presented him with the George Medal! The brief summary below shows how well deserved these accolades were.<\/p>\n
SGT Anthony Russell\u2019s role that night was as a winchman in a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter scrambled from Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) Culdrose, Cornwall. Tony\u2019s bravery was key in saving the lives of two yachtsmen from the \u2018Andriette\u2019 foundering in heavy seas and high winds, 80 miles offshore, south-east of the Isles of Scilly. With time of the essence, Tony volunteered to conduct a conventional and extremely hazardous rescue. Winched down in complete darkness, immediately engulfed in waves and losing communications, he hauled himself into the life raft and secured the first survivor with a strop to be lifted up to the safety of the helicopter. Briefly dragged back under the water, Tony was quickly winched up to the relative safety of the helicopter. The life raft then capsized and the remaining survivor was lost from sight. With little regard for his own safety, he winched back down despite the buffering waves, swam to the inverted life raft, diving under it and surfacing in an air pocket. Losing sight of him, the helicopter crew decided to attempt to winch him using the winch wire, which caused the life raft to flip over, fortuitously with the survivor alive inside. Tony, entangled in ropes, managed to cut himself free, swim back to the survivor, place him in a strop and complete the rescue.<\/p>\n
Tony and the team were the last hope for the yachtsmen, but their courage and professionalism shone through, just as it does among the crews at St Athan and other bases today. When recounting his daredevil rescue, Tony said: \u2018It was an extremely difficult and tense rescue. The whole crew onboard the helicopter worked well as a team in what was technically an extremely difficult rescue.\u2019<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARTICLES of GENERAL INTEREST A TALE OF BRAVERY AND ONGOING SERVICE AT ST ATHAN As one of 10 HM Coastguard bases strategically located around the UK, St Athan provides vital life-saving support to fishing and other marine industries. The base also responds to a wide variety of land-based incidents including mountain rescue, missing persons and medical emergencies. St Athan was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[334,430],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6cWjO-16514","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15901,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15901","url_meta":{"origin":16514,"position":0},"title":"When The Battle of Britain Came To Wenvoe","author":"Alan Williams","date":"27th August 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"WHEN THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN CAME TO WENVOE September brings the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. While the events are mostly associated with the southeast of England, the Vale of Glamorgan played an important part in the victory over the Luftwaffe. 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