Stoughton Fire Captain Robert O'Donnell said he was just doing what any of colleagues would have done when he rushed to help out victims of the Boston Marathon bombing in April.
"Every guy I worked with would have done the same thing," said O'Donnell, when he was presented with the Stoughton Fire Department's Medal of Honor and a proclamation from the board of selectmen Tuesday night. "I was in the right place at the right time or the right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at the wrong time."
Stoughton Fire Chief Mark Dolloff said O'Donnell exemplified the definition of valor ,and praised his heroism during the chaotic minutes T after the bombing.
At the time of the bombing, O'Donnell was a spectator at the finish line, waiting for his son Bobby O'Donnell III, a 2012 Oliver Ames High School graduate, to finish the race.
“After immediately thinking of my son who was running the race, and knowing there was nothing I could do at that moment for him, I ran toward the smoke and immediately started assessing and triaging," O’Donnell said, when he was honored at Good Samaritan Hospital earlier this year. “I didn’t see anyone running away from the scene despite the risk of additional devices. I knew if my son were injured, someone would be helping him the same way. We worked together viewing every wounded person as a member of our family.”
O'Donnell, who has been in the department for 33 years, had the medal pinned on my his mother. A large group of his fellow firefighters turned out for the ceremony.
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