Two local fishermen recently received prestigious national awards for a harrowing at-sea rescue they helped carry out two years ago off the coast of Alaska.

Late last month, Dan Hardwick and Greg Plancich received medals from the Carnegie Hero Fund, which awards civilians who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree saving or trying to save the lives of others.

Hardwick, Plancich and two other men were given the honor for their role in helping rescue the crew of a capsized fishing boat during a fierce storm off of Kodiak, Alaska, in 2012. Each award comes with a bronze medal and $5,000. The men also received the Coast Guard’s Good Samaritan award, the highest honor the Coast Guard gives to civilians, last year.

“It was very nice, and I certainly appreciate the $5,000 and the recognition, but in the end that’s not why we did it,” Hardwick said last week. “We would have done it no matter what.”

The incident happened early in the morning on Jan. 25, 2012. Plancich, the captain of the FV Tuxedni, a 119-foot boat operated by Trident Seafoods, and his three-man crew, including Hardwick, were tied up safely in Kodiak. They were waiting for another boat, the 68-foot FV Heritage, to deliver them a load of cod when they heard a Coast Guard radio broadcast that the Heritage was caught in a fierce storm and taking on water. The Heritage’s seven-person crew abandoned ship, with five of them huddling in a life raft and another two floating in the icy water in survival suits.

To make matters worse, local Coast Guard rescue crews were already assisting another boat caught in the same storm, delaying their response to the Heritage.

Despite the sub-freezing temperatures, 17-foot waves, 70-mile-per-hour winds and blowing snow, Plancich and his crew, anchored four miles away, decided to head into the storm to try to help the crew of the Heritage.

Plancich, who was on duty last week and could not be reached by The Beachcomber, recalled the incident in an interview last year.

“It was kind of scary. It was a pretty intense situation,” he said. “Seas building up to 25 feet and breaking on us, coming over the deck. I was kind of worried about washing my crew overboard.”

Plancich and his crew found the floating life raft by using a zig-zag search pattern and rescued the five men inside, pulling them into their own boat. A Coast Guard helicopter arrived around the same time and, with the assistance of specially trained swimmers, rescued the two men in the water. The Heritage eventually sank, but all men were in good or fair condition.

John van Amerongen, a spokesman for Trident Seafoods who lives on Vashon, said that if the Tuxedni hadn’t arrived on the scene that morning, the situation could have ended much worse. The Coast Guard helicopter couldn’t have transported all seven Heritage crew members at once and likely would have had to make multiple trips, leaving the crew and possibly rescue swimmers biding their time in the dangerous storm.

“We were thrilled,” van Amerongen said of the Carnegie Medals. “It’s a wonderful acknowledgement of their bravery and skill.”

The Carnegie Hero Fund — founded in 1904 by wealthy philanthropist and Carnegie Hall builder Andrew Carnegie — learned of the rescue after it was covered by several Alaska news outlets. Jeffrey Dooley, a Carnegie spokesmen, said the men are only now being awarded because the organization thoroughly investigates reported acts of heroism before giving its medals and those investigations can take some time.

Though the Carnegie Hero Fund receives hundreds of nominations a year, there are strict requirements for its awards, Dooley said. Carnegie defines a hero as a civilian who voluntarily risk his or her life to an extraordinary degree to save the lives of others and has no full measure of responsibility for the victim or victims. There must be conclusive evidence that the act occurred as reported, and it must be called to the attention of the commission within two years. Last year one-fifth of the Carnegie Medals were given posthumously.

This investigation into the Kodiak rescue, Dooley said, included interviews of all the crew members, many of whom were on fishing boats and difficult to reach, as well as Coast Guard officials and others involved.

“It can take that long to get the information we need,” Dooley said. “The research process is pretty rigorous.”

Carnegie received 850 nominations last year and gave just 84 awards. The other Tuxedni crew members honored were Jim Fultz of Siletz, Oregon, and Wayne Kitt of Loon Lake, Washington.

Hardwick, who is currently recovering from an injury and running a small business on Vashon, said he plans to save his award money. And while he was glad for the award, he said the the biggest honor came from the fishermen he rescued.

“One of the crew members said, ‘Because of you guys, six kids get to see their dad again,’” he said. “I still get a tear in my eye. That’s the biggest reward I could get.”