FORT DRUM (AP) -- A Fort Drum soldier from Missouri is getting a heroism award for helping to rescue passengers from a tour bus that burst into flames after being rear-ended on a New York highway.
Army Sgt. Jacob Perkins will be awarded the Soldier's Medal at a ceremony Tuesday on the military post in northern New York. It is one of the military's highest awards for a noncombat act of heroism.
Perkins was driving home to Mountain Grove, Mo., on leave in July when he saw a bus and a tractor-trailer engulfed in flames on the side of the New York State Thruway, between Syracuse and Rochester. He ran into the bus several times to help remove injured passengers.
The crash killed the truck driver and injured as many as 50 bus passengers.
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