OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 11, 2002

Fish and Wildlife Service's Rich Gaudagno
Honored Posthumously with Valor Award

(WASHINGTON) - Rich Gaudagno, a Fish and Wildlife Service refuge manager who is believed to have been among those who fought the terrorist hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93, will be posthumously awarded the Department of the Interior's Valor Award, Secretary Norton announced today.

Gaudagno, a 17-year veteran of federal service, died when Flight 93 crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside, after a group of passengers,at the expense of their lives, courageously overwhelmed the terrorists and thwarted their plans to crash the airplane into a national security target, possibly the White House or the Capitol.

"Rich Gaudagno was a trained and dedicated federal law enforcement officer as well as refuge manager," Secretary Norton said in announcing the award. "Rich was a 'no nonsense' guy with a strong sense of right and wrong and many of his family members, coworkers, and friends believe he was among those who stopped the hijackers from taking Flight 93 to its intended target."

"Rich carried out his duty in the highest traditions of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior," Norton said. "He was a brave, resourceful, and dedicated federal employee and we wish to honor his example and his memory."

Norton announced the special recognition for Gaudagno on the sixth-month anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The award will be presented to members of Gaudagno's family in an April 15 ceremony at the Fish and Wildlife Service's National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

The Department's Valor Award is presented to Interior employees who have demonstrated unusual courage involving a high degree of personal risk in the face of danger. The act of heroism is not required to be related to official duties or to have occurred at the official duty station.

Earlier this year Secretary Norton announced that Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Northern California, where Gaudagno was manager, had been renamed in his honor.

Gaudagno began his career as a biologist with the New Jersey Fish and Game Department and at Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge near Newark Airport in New Jersey. His first permanent position with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was in 1987 as a law enforcement officer and wildlife inspector in Philadelphia.