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By Times staff writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 22, 2000
The U.S. Air Force has presented Inverness resident Robert Zontini with the Airman's Medal of Valor.
Zontini, a retired master sergeant, received the honor because of his service in May 1962 on a mountainside in the remote Ngong mountains of Kenya.
He rappelled to the still-burning wreckage of a C-130 Hercules transport, entered the wreckage and searched for survivors.
Zontini served in the U.S. Army and Air Force for 17 years; he retired after being injured in a parachute jump.