Other articles by Carol Ann Alaimo:

Army hero's dog tag is found by group here Major international drill based at D-M to focus on rescue skills, coordination Another death in medical barracks D-M after charter middle school On Vets Day, new book debuts here, telling the stories of female warriors Local therapist taps into promising help for combat-linked stress Tucson airmen part of US push to create good will in Latin America State fines auto dealer $1,000, calls for its license A-10s still grounded; problems unresolved Recruiting Web site for Navy helping to bring moms aboard

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There's a humming noise a cable makes when it is about to snap. On an awful morning in Iraq, the sound echoed in Kraig Lemme's head.

When he heard it, the 24-year-old Tucson soldier was chest-deep in filthy water, standing atop an Abrams tank that had flipped into a canal with three crew members inside.

On shore, another Abrams hooked to one end of the cable was straining to lift the disabled tank's hatch above water so Lemme could get at the trapped trio.

"Everybody stood back because the cables were really tight. The tank was kind of rocking like it could fall at any minute," recalled the Army specialist who was deployed with the 1st Cavalry Division.

The peril Lemme put himself in to help rescue his comrades that day has earned him one of the Army's highest honors for heroism not involving enemy contact.

He recently was awarded the Soldier's Medal, putting him in the company of past recipients such as retired Gen. Colin Powell, who won the same medal during the Vietnam War for pulling troops from a burning helicopter.

Other notable recipients include the late Army helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson and his door gunner Lawrence Colburn, two soldiers who intervened to halt the slaughter of civilians in the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

For Lemme, a 2000 graduate of Canyon del Oro High School, being awarded the medal wasn't as thrilling as knowing that he helped spare some Army families the anguish of losing their loved ones.

"It's the greatest feeling to know that someone is alive because of you," he said in a phone interview from Fort Hood, Texas, where he's now preparing for his second Iraq tour.

A number of U.S. troops have drowned inside their vehicles in the Baghdad area, where a network of irrigation canals makes navigation tricky. Some would-be rescuers have drowned, too.

When Lemme arrived on the scene before dawn that day in October 2004, no one knew if the tank crew members were dead or alive.

Only later would he learn that the three were submerged up to their mouths, mentally saying their prayers as they shared the last of a small pocket of air.

"They thought it was the end," said Lemme. But the cable held and the trapped soldiers were removed, shaken but unharmed.

Lemme, an infantryman with Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, is due to return to Iraq next month. When he's discharged in 2008, he plans to work in law enforcement or the railroad industry in Tucson.

Lemme's parents, Mike and Monica Lemme of Oro Valley, who relocated their family here from South Dakota a decade ago, weren't surprised when they heard about their son's lifesaving exploits.

"We could picture it," said Mike Lemme, 46. "We just knew that he wouldn't hesitate to do something like that. We are very, very proud of him."