Letter Carriers Honor Heroes of the Year

When Hurricane Katrina struck the Louisiana coast last year Jim Osborne organized a convoy of 10 airboats in South Florida and headed west to assist in the rescue efforts.

Osborne was able to rescue 20 people and his group accounted for more than 175 saved from the rising waters, an effort that earned National Hero of the Year honors for the mail carrier from Port St. Lucie.

Osborne, 48, and other winners of the annual heroism awards will be honored at ceremonies in Washington on Sept. 7, the National Association of Letter Carriers announced Thursday.

Others being honored will be:

— National Humanitarian of the Year, Lane Anderson of Santa Barbara, Calif. Anderson developed a memorial tribute on a Pacific beach to remember men and women who have been killed in Iraq. The display of small white crosses with flags is reconstructed every Sunday and then removed at sunset.

— Carrier Alert Rescue Award, Samuel Dickson of Brownsville, Ind., for coming to the rescue of an elderly man who fell off a ladder and was lying partially hidden in bushes outside his home.

— Regional Hero of the Year East, Terry Hampton of Macon, Ga., who helped police capture a man who had assaulted a woman with a knife in a carjacking attempt. Only later did Hampton learn that the woman who was attacked was his wife.

— Regional Hero of the Year West, Luis Espinosa of Dayton, Texas who crawled through a burning apartment in a housing development and dragged a burned man to safety.

— Regional Hero of the Year Central, Leonard Morris of New Orleans, for pulling his boat through rising waters to rescue eight people trapped in a house as Hurricane Katrina swept through his city.

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National Association of Letter Carriers: http://www.nalc.org

More about the 2006 honorees: http://www.nalc.org/commun/heroes/index.html