Straight-Up Bravery
As he tells the story today, Curtis Green, 43, figures he has about 90 percent of the strength back in his right hand, even with the scars. But a year ago, as he sat in a hospital with one side of that hand looking like it had been raked across a cheese grater, a gaping hole where his knuckle had split open, and the whole end of his pinkie hanging off, he was genuinely stunned that he—or any of the other men—was even alive. That was December 26, 2019, the day on which a series of events would earn Green the U.S. Coast Guard Distinguished Public Service Medal, which he received in November 2020.
The lives Green saved were of men he had known personally and profoundly since he was a boy growing up around the Charleston Marina Complex in Charleston, Oregon. These men were hardscrabble members of one of the state’s biggest commercial fishing fleets, which docked, stocked and fueled there. Green’s stepfather worked at the
