Medal of Courage

Tom began wrestling at the age of nine after losing his leg in a lawn mower accident when he was five years old. His success on the mat began in his freshman year at Red Bank High School where he wrestled at 106-pounds for two seasons. Transferring to Red Bank Catholic High School where he continued to wrestle, he lost only one dual meet in four years of varsity wrestling competition. With great determination, discipline, and skill, he won the New Jersey State Wrestling title in 1974. He refused to let a major handicap get in the way of success in one of the toughest of individual sports. Seitz applied the values and attributes he learned through wrestling, as he became a forklift operator at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma. Today, by working hard and always striving to do his best, he has risen to become a sheet metal mechanic, a great trade with a promising future.