A six-year-old girl's heroic act earned her a "Medal of Distinguished Service" from the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

Kallie Helton is the talk of her hometown after playing a crucial role in a search and rescue operation in Ramona.

"In my opinion she undoubtedly played a pivotal role in saving his life," Lt. Michael McNeil told CBS8 reporter Jeff Zevely. "Quite frankly, she did something that I am not confident most people, most adults would do."

The Sheriff Department's Search and Rescue team was looking for a missing man, a "71-year-old gentleman by the name of Tom Ashton," on Memorial Day.

Ashton suffers from Alzheimer's and was missing in the hills of Ramona for over five hours.

"We had a drone in the area and our drone was right over where he was and we could not see him because of the thick brush," said Ernie Cowan, the Search & Rescue division leader.

Pilot Tim Johnson was hovering right over the missing man but couldn't see him.

"This is probably the first time a girl that age has been that instrumental in locating somebody," said Johnson.

Mel Taylor

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