Warrant Officer Mark Kendall, a Canadian Ranger instructor, and two Nishnawbe-Aski Police officers, are credited with saving the life of a young mother who said she was going to commit suicide near Sandy Lake in northern Saskatchewan.
WO Kendall grew up near Utica and attended Port Perry schools. He is the son of Larry and Doreen Kendall.
The two police officers negotiated unsuccessfully with the distraught woman for an hour as she walked slowly towards the centre of the fast flowing Severn River where the unstable ice would not have supported her weight. The thin ice forced the officers, who had no safety equipment, to retreat.
The woman was eventually saved by WO Kendall, who was tethered to a safety rope held by Rangers. Making his way out to the woman on the dangerous ice he was able to speak with her.
“I talked to her for five or 10 minutes about my family and hers,” he said. He asked her if she intended to take her life and she replied, “yes”.
“She started stamping on the thin ice as if she wanted to break through. She looked away briefly and I ran about 20 feet and I tackled her. I wrapped a rope around her and I held her for all I was worth as the Rangers pulled us to safe ice,” WO Kendall recounted.
Ironically, only a month earlier, he had taken a course in suicide prevention, taught by Staff Sergeant MacLeod. “I said all the things to her that Dan told us to say. It was all going through my mind as I talked to her… I have to thank Dan for what he taught me.”
Mark received praise from his commanding officer. Warrant Officer Mark Kendall did great stuff,” said Major Guy Ingram, CO of 3rd Canadian Ranger Patrol Group.
“The police officers tried to get out there on the river where the ice was dangerous and realized it was beyond their training and equipment level. They had no safety equipment. They knew our Rangers have had ice rescue training and we have rescue equipment in place in the community,” the commanding officer continued.
A veteran of Afghanistan, WO Kendall said saving the woman was the best day in his military career. “You do good things in the army but this was the best feeling ever.”
Files courtesy of Sgt. Peter Moon
