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Name: John Heimberger & Mike Barnes
Profession: Engineer-Conductors
Location: Junction City, Oregon
On a normal work day, John Heimberger and Mike Barnes ensure smooth operations on RailAmerica's Puget Sound and Pacific Railroad as engineer-conductors. The pair touched two lives in an extraordinary way -- rescuing two teen-agers from a frigid waterway near Junction City, Oregon, in May 2004. The boys, aged 16 and 17, were on Elliot Slough in a flat-bottomed boat without paddles or life jackets when the boat sprang a leak. As the boat filled with water, the two clung to the pilings beneath a train trestle, fearing they would be swept into the Chehalis River. Normally train crews don't walk near the trestle, but Heimberger and Barnes were crossing the trestle while keeping an eye on a train that was backing up. The pair looked down to see the teens sitting in the sinking boat, one of the boys frantically trying to plug the hole with his hand, the other holding fast to the piling. Heimberger asked if they could swim. One said he could. The other could not. That's when Heimberger, a former Green Beret, knew he'd have to save them.
"He gave me a resigned look as he handed me his keys and wallet," Barnes told the Aberdeen, Wash., Daily World, "and dived into the 40-degree water."
He pulled the teens into shallow water. Firefighters said the boys could've drowned or died of hypothermia if the two railroaders hadn't seen them. The boys were in fine shape other than mild hypothermia and a strong lecture from Heimberger.
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