Medal of Valor

Heroic MHP Trooper Receives Medal of Valor for rescuing firefighters from downed helicopter.

Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Amanda Villa received the agency’s highest award, the Medal of Valor on Monday, after rescuing several firefighters from a downed helicopter during the Deep Creek Canyon fire near Townsend.

The Montana Highway Patrol Trooper who was critically injured Thursday night near Evaro, Wade Palmer, was honored in 2015 along with then cadet T.J. Templeton with the Medal of Valor after his heroic rescue of a woman and her family on I-90 in 2014.

Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Adam Gane stood before his fellow troopers on Wednesday afternoon in Missoula and received the highest award possible in his profession, the Medal of Valor, from Montana Attorney General Tim Fox.