Vineyarder and National Guardsman Chris Brown was honored last Friday with the highest award given in the state, the Massachusetts Medal of Merit Award, for saving a life in recent ice storm.

Specialist James Norman Christopher Brown 2nd — known in the Guard as James, though Islanders know him as Chris — was one of two guardsmen based in Agawam who responded to a 71-year-old Blandford woman who is alive because of the efforts.

The woman and her husband were powering their home with a generator after the recent powerful ice storm, according to local television report on WWLP.com. As carbon monoxide fumes seeped into the home, the Blandford woman went into cardiac arrest.

Spec. James Brown said in the television report, “An elderly gentlemen arrived at the Blandford fire station, and he advised us that his wife wasn’t doing well. He wasn’t looking too good himself. By the time I got there, Shaffer already started CPR. Then, I chimed in to assist them.”

Specialist Brown is from Oak Bluffs. He recently served in Afghanistan.