The national organization of the Boy Scouts of America is bestowing rare heroism medals today on a 10-year-old Kailua Cub Scout and his Cub Scout leader for their bravery and quick action after the May 17 crash of an aircraft during a fatal training accident at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows.

Cubmaster Lisa Peddle Smith, an intensive care unit nurse, and Cub Scout Kainoa Hepfner, a Webelo, are being honored at a Scouting leadership breakfast at Waialae Country Club.

Peddle Smith was one of the first to arrive at the scene of the crash of the Osprey at Bellows, just 1,000 feet from where the Cub Scouts were camping.

Peddle Smith said she climbed up a 10-foot chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, crawled over the top after a Marine threw her a flak jacket that she placed over the wire, and then ran to try to help the crash victims.

“I didn’t even think,” said the 51-year-old Kailua woman. “Three seconds flat. You tell me to do that again, I’d never be able to do that. I just did what I could.”

Some Marines from the aircraft “kept telling us to move back,” she said. “I didn’t find out till later that it’s because the Osprey was blowing up.”

Peddle Smith said they helped the last of the 21 Marines and a sailor get out of the aircraft, which was in three pieces and burning.

One of those she assisted was Lance Cpl. Joshua Barron, 24, assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 161.

“I assisted immediately with Josh,” she said, helping to get him out of the aircraft. “He required CPR , and he died on scene. It was so sad.”

She also helped Lance Cpl. Matthew Determan, 21, with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, who died two days later.

“I’ve been an ICU nurse for 25 years,” she said. “Never had I seen anything like this.”

She said many had spinal cord injuries, requiring her to keep them straight, support their necks and make sure they could breathe.

“I did what I could do as a nurse,” she said. “I did what I could do as a mom. No equipment. I just talked to the Marines, held their hands.”

Peddle Smith will receive the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms. It is the highest heroism medal awarded by the Boy Scouts and is only given in exceptional cases to a Scout or adult leader for displaying unusual heroism and extraordinary skill in saving or attempting to save a life at extreme risk to self. There have only been 288 recipients since 1928.

Hepfner and his two sisters were watching the Ospreys practice, and witnessed the fatal crash.

“He saw the Osprey come down and crash,” his mother, Nachelle Hepfner, said. “That’s when he ran over and told us, ‘Mom, Dad, it’s crashed!’ We told him, ‘Go get Aunty Lisa,’ knowing she was a nurse. He went and told her.”

Peddle Smith jumped into the Hepfner’s family car and they drove her to the crash site.

Hepfner is receiving the Meritorious Action Award Medal, for performing an outstanding act of service of rare or exceptional character that reflects an uncommon degree of concern for others’ well-being.

The Marine Corps said in November the crash resulted from pilot error in severe brownout conditions.