Joe Herro had a busy month in July, and it wasn't because the iron worker had a lot of work at his craft.

Herro, who lives on Big Bay De Noc in the Upper Peninsula, was directly responsible for rescuing six stranded boaters in two separate incidents last month, and was cited last week by the Delta County Sheriff's Department for his good work.

Four boaters he plucked from the water after their boat burned, and two other boaters ran aground in the middle of the night, with their craft taking on water. They were also rescued.

"In both cases, they were in a real pinch, and they needed help," said Herro, a former commercial fisherman. "You would have done the same thing if you could; anyone would have helped them. It was no big thing. But twice in one month; I was beginning to wonder if someone put 911 at the beginning of my phone number."

Actually, the 44-year-old member of Iron Workers Local 8 heard about the first incident in the wee hours of July 1 over his marine radio. He had a case of indigestion about 3 a.m., so he was wide awake when he heard a distress call with a strong signal from a boater who had run aground.

With help from the Coast Guard hours away, he called the stricken boat and asked them their location. He was told that the boaters could see the Summer Island light, which is near Herro's property. Herro, who knows the waters well, said he knew exactly which reef had snagged the boaters, and he also knew that he was going to need a big boat - especially with the 4-5 foot waves and whitecaps that were starting to whip up on the bay.

So he woke up two commercial fishermen friends, brothers Ben and Joe Peterson, and they found a stranded couple on a sailboat whose keel had indeed been snagged by a reef. It seems the sailboat had been anchored, but the anchors failed to catch anything on the bottom of the bay. The sailboat was taking on water through a gash in the hull, but the Proud

Maid fishing boat was able to pull it off the reef and into a safe anchorage.

"That was a good challenge, especially with those whitecaps," Herro said.

At the time of the other incident on July 24, the bay was quiet and clear and the weather was warm. Herro's six-year-old daughter Victoria was playing on the beach near their property when she pointed out some smoke on the water to her dad. Herro went up a hill to get a better look, and sure enough, a boat was on fire about a mile and a half out.

Not expecting to use his 14-foot Sea Nymph docked nearby, Herro had to first mix fuel for the boat before going out to the rescue. By the time he got to the stricken 21-foot tri-hull boat, it had burned to the waterline, and the four occupants, two men and two women, were bobbing about on their floatation devices.

"The real challenge here was getting them all onto my little dock boat," Herro said. "It has a little 25-horse outboard on the back, so I had them use it as a step, and as they got on, I placed them in the front to even out the weight. It worked out."

The cause of the fire was undetermined. None of the four occupants was injured. For their efforts, local TV 6 did a report on Joe, playing on the word "hero" and the extra "r" in Joe's last name.

Joe was given a letter of commendation by the Delta County Sheriff's Department last week for his efforts. "Without being asked he took it upon himself to help those people, and I think he did a great job and deserved to be recognized," said Deputy Duane Couillard. "Joe and the Petersons did a great job."

Joe said he and the Peterson brothers were also thanked for their efforts by the boaters they saved, but Joe got a little extra something from the people whose boat burned. "They came by later with a 30-pack of Busch beer," he said. Geez, Busch? "Ah, what the hell, no complaining," Joe said with a laugh.