Joe Tillman

Joe Tillman was born August 16, 1996 in a small town in North Carolina while his mother, Rebecca, was in the Coast Guard and his father, Daniel, in the Navy. Rebecca was search and rescue aircrew and a helicopter mechanic. Daniel was a steelworker in the Seabees. Joe became a hero's hero at nearly 3 years of age, when he saved the lives of his entire family, as an intruder with a knife entered their home. The intruder grabbed Joe and tried to cut him with the knife but he managed to pull away from him, run into his parent's bedroom, wake them up, tell them about the intruder, in spite of his severe speech problem, which made it almost impossible to understand anything he said. His father, by some miracle, understood him and interpreted for his mother. Rebecca, having been declared a hero herself by public resolution for one of her search and rescue cases, awarded Joe her highest medal for his demonstration of bravery in saving the lives of his family. The ensuing years brought a lot