Postal Worker Honored; Delivered Man From Death

Mike Griffin figures God saved him from drowning 15 years ago so he could do the same for another man.

In a daring rescue last February, the 42-year-old postal worker pulled a snowmobiler from the icy waters of North Idaho’s Twin Lakes.

The U.S. Postal Service will honor Griffin and 12 other postal workers in Washington, D.C., next week for their heroic efforts.

Tired of negative press, the Postal Service hopes to show the public the more positive side of its profession.

“A lot of employees really do more than their job,” said Al DeSarro, a spokesman for the Postal Service. “We’ve got employees that go above and beyond the call of duty and care about the customers, not just getting them their mail, but about their welfare.”

Griffin’s lifesaving action was selected as one of the 13 best examples of heroic action taken by postal workers nationally. DeSarro submitted a Spokesman-Review article about Griffin’s rescue effort. It was selected out of more than 1,000 entries.

“Now that I look back on it, I know God saved me to come here so I could save Rick Edelblute,” Griffin said Thursday.

Griffin works as a custodian at the Spokane mail processing center on Trent Avenue and lives in Twin Lakes, Idaho.

He was at his lakeside home when he noticed that Edelblute had driven his snowmobile across the lake and had crashed through the thin ice.

Griffin grabbed a canoe and chopped through the icy water with a broken paddle.

“I just grabbed him by the back of the neck and yanked him up out of the water,” Griffin said. “We should have flipped over right there.”

It’s not the first time Griffin has almost encountered a watery death.

Griffin, who spent 20 years in the Navy, was in Guam with friends when they decided to go scuba diving. Although he had no training, Griffin and his friends dove 160 feet and then ran out of air.

Griffin said he was able to make it to the surface safely. But one of his friends suffered severe side effects from the quick decompression.

“Somebody saved me for something bigger,” he said.

Griffin will be honored by Postmaster General Marvin Runyon at the National Press Club on Tuesday. He also will visit the White House and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The U.S. Postal Service will pay for the trip, which is expected to cost less than $1,000, said DeSarro.

Other winners include a letter carrier who helped prevent a girl from committing suicide and a letter carrier who found an elderly woman who had been lying hurt and unable to move in her home for two days.

“Nobody hears about all the good things; you always hear about the letter that’s six years late,” Griffin said. “I think things like this tend to dispel all the bad press we get.”

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