An off-duty lieutenant who saved a man’s life, in May of this year, was presented a Three Stars of TN and First Responder Award Thursday during a ceremony held by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security.
THP Lieutenant Charlie Caplinger was presented the award for his heroic actions that saved a man’s life during an outing on Center Hill Lake.
On Saturday, May 2, Lieutenant Charlie Caplinger and Mike Redmon were participating in a fishing tournament on Center Hill Lake when they came upon an incident. According to Caplinger, the two men started hearing loud talking from a nearby boat. "We stopped at this spot and were fishing, and about 100 yards away there was another boat with two people in it. We could hear them talking, then one gentleman started yelling for help."
Caplinger said the man started panicking and waving his arms. They found that the man's son had fallen into the water, and had been in there for quite some time. The man was hanging onto a tree in the water covered in thorns. After attempting multiples tries, the man was gotten to shallow water and pulled back onto the boat.