It was July 17, 1967. During routine work on a power line, lineman Randall G.
It was July 17, 1967. During routine work on a power line, lineman Randall G. Champion came into contact with a live wire carrying over 4,000 volts. The powerful surge knocked him unconscious, leaving him hanging helplessly in his safety harness, swaying in the open air nearly twenty feet above the ground.
Below, panic erupted. Shouts filled the street. But one man didn’t hesitate.
J.D. Thompson — his coworker, his friend — ran to the pole and began climbing.
Without waiting for instructions.
Without thinking of his own safety.
Without knowing if it was already too late.
Reaching Randall’s motionless body, Thompson did the one thing his training — and his heart — demanded. He stabilized him, held him close, and began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation… while both men were suspended in the sky.
At that very moment, a young newspaper photographer named Rocco Morabito arrived on the scene. He captured a single photograph — a picture so powerful that it would go on to win the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography.
The image became known to the world as:
“The Kiss of Life.”
For long seconds, nothing happened.
Then — a faint movement.
A breath.
A flicker of life.
Randall Champion started breathing again.
From the ground, someone heard the words that sounded like a miracle:
“He’s breathing!”
Champion was carefully lowered to safety. Later, he would say that when he regained awareness, he thought he was still trapped on the wire. He didn’t even know — until he saw the photo — that a friend had literally given him the breath of life in the air.
The next day, that photograph appeared in newspapers around the world. People called Thompson a hero.
But he never accepted that title.
After saving his friend’s life, he simply went back to work. A storm was coming. Power needed to stay on. Families depended on it.
Years later, Champion survived another severe electrical accident in the line of duty. He eventually retired after decades of service and passed away in 2002. Morabito, the man behind the camera, passed in 2009 — but his photograph remains eternal.
Today, the image is used in training programs to show new lineworkers what courage, brotherhood, and duty truly look like.
What this story reminds us is that real heroes don’t wear capes or seek attention. Sometimes they are hanging from a pole, risking everything, simply because another human life matters more than their own fear.
And sometimes, one single breath… can defeat the power of 4,000 volts.
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