(Helena) – Montana Highway Patrol (MHP) Trooper Barb Armstrong received the Medal of Valor, the agency’s highest awardfor locating a woman who had been viciously attacked by river otters, providing aid, and guiding a life flight helicopter to their location.
Armstrong swam across the river in full uniform and gear, which weighs approximately twenty pounds, carrying an emergency medical services equipment bag and knowing dangerous animals were in the vicinity. Otters can grow up to five feet-long and have a bite roughly equivalent to a German shepherd’s.
MHP Colonel Steve Lavin presided over the ceremony, Attorney General Austin Knudsen presented the award.
