HEROES: Decision

Behind the rail guarding the summit of Yosemite's misty, snow-swollen Vernal Falls, 21-year-old Orville Loos, just out of the Navy and still in uniform, gaped -with the other tourists, listened to the mighty cataract pounding fearsomely on the jagged boulders 320 feet below. It would be something to remember when he went home to Dayton, Ohio, and the new electrical-appliance shop his parents had bought for him.

Then he heard a scream. Eleven-year-old Keene Freeman, son of famed Washington, D.C. neurologist Dr. Walter Freeman, had escaped his father's eye for a moment, and slipped into the racing torrent while trying to...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!