Scout receives award for saving father's life

On Tuesday, September 25, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Certificate of Merit from the National Court of Honor of the Boy Scouts of America was presented to Brett Jones, a student at Fallbrook High School.

The action that earned Bret the award happened at his home the morning of September 22, 2006. His father, David, was eating breakfast when a piece of fried ham lodged in his throat so that he couldn’t swallow or breathe. His 11-year-old daughter Ashlyn yelled for Brett, who was 15 at the time.

Brett realized his father was choking and performed the Heimlich maneuver. His father then coughed out the food and started breathing. When his father asked him where he learned to do that, Brett told him “in the scouts.”

Brett belongs to Troop 718, where he was a Star rank at the time of the incident. He is currently a Life rank working on becoming an Eagle Scout. The Certificate of Merit is the next to the highest honor that a scout can get and is rarely awarded.

At the end of the Court of Honor, Battalion Chief Steve Abbott of the North County Fire Protection District presented Brett with a Community Service Award. This award is also given very rarely and only in times when someone saves another person’s life.