OKLAHOMA CITY – Four Southwestern Oklahoma State University Guard Officer Leadership Development (GOLD) program officer candidates and one student lifeguard were honored on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, for their heroic actions in saving a fellow GOLD candidate during training on Jan. 28, 2025, in Weatherford, Oklahoma.
Spc. Avrie Nowakowski, Spc. Diego Ortiz, Pfc. Rhyson Golightly, and Spc. Austin May were presented with the Army Achievement Medal for their actions.
Statton Mantz, the student lifeguard involved, received the Thunderbird Medal, the Oklahoma National Guard’s highest award presented to a civilian.
“As a Soldier, you are trained to be comfortable at being uncomfortable,” said Pfc. Rhyson Golightly, one of the officer candidates awarded with the Army Achievement Medal. “It translates to real life scenarios where we can act on it and save lives.”
On Jan. 28, 2025, the SWOSU GOLD Program was training at a university pool when one officer candidate experienced a medical emergency and did not resurface.
Mantz and an officer candidate quickly responded by pulling the individual from the water and performing CPR, while the other officer candidates coordinated with emergency responders to transfer the officer candidate to a local hospital, where he recovered.
“You need to have your skills sharpened,” Mantz said. “Because if any one of us would have been slacking or not paying attention or not knowing what we were doing, the outcome could have been severely different.”
Dr. Diana Lovell, SWOSU president, also presented the Presidential Order of Merit, the highest honor the university president can bestow, to each of the five students in recognition of their bravery.
Lt. Col. Kale Rogers, commander of the Oklahoma Army National Guard’s 45th Field Artillery Brigade, said Citizen-Soldiers like the GOLD program officer candidates may only put their uniform on once a month, but the skills and discipline they develop as Guardsmen prepares them to be “Always Ready, Always There” to help their fellow Oklahomans.
“I think, in my own humble opinion, that the greatest form of all of us is not to serve ourselves, but serve somebody