Arlington Marine's Heroic Act Garners Military Honor: Report

ARLINGTON, VA — Alexia and Bart Collart learned last week that their son, U.S. Marine Cpl. Spencer R. Collart, would be posthumously awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for valor, according to news reports.

Until recently, the couple thought that their 21-year-old son had died along with two other Marines in the crash of an MV-22B Osprey aircraft in Australia last year, according to the Associated Press.

But the official Marine Corps investigation into the crash determined that Collart had survived and died after he reentered the burning cockpit in an attempt to rescue the trapped pilots, the AP reported. For that act of heroism, the 2022 graduate of Washington-Liberty High School would be receiving the service’s highest noncombat award.

“I heard a song the other day. I’ve heard it many times,” said Bart Collart, Spencer's father. “There was a quote in there, about how ‘the last thing on my mind was to leave you.’ And I think that was Spencer talking with me a little. He had no intention of leaving us. I think he thought he’d go in and get the job done.”

Read the Associated Press' full story.