Marines, Okinawan sailor credited with rescuing driver after highway crash

A Marine credited his father and the Marine Corps with techniques he and three other soldiers used to rescue an accident victim from the burning wreckage on Okinawa earlier this month.

Rifleman Cpl. Austin Potter and Mortar Lance Cpl. Samuel Calhoun, both at the time with the 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, received the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal on October 10 for their actions just four days earlier. The regiment’s commander, Col. Richard Barclay, presented the awards during a ceremony at Camp Schwab.

Lance Cpl. During the same ceremony, Stephen Estrada, also a mortarman, and Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Jett Garcia, a religious programs specialist, received certificates of recognition.

“I saw someone needed help, and I was there to help them,” Potter told Stars and Stripes over the phone from Falling Waters, West Virginia, on Oct. 22. “That’s all that really mattered to me.”

The four were in a taxi heading to Schwab on the Okinawa Highway shortly after midnight on Oct. 6 when they came across the wreck of a small kei truck, Potter said.

“The taxi driver came to a complete stop, the tires started screeching, and we saw a crashed truck in the middle of the expressway,” Potter said from California, where he returned after completing his unit’s rotational deployment.

As smoke billowed from the truck’s cab, Potter noticed someone in the vehicle holding out their hands in concern.

“We all ran out and ran to the disabled truck,” he said. “I could tell he was definitely confused; he didn’t know where he was.”

Troopers tried to pry open the driver’s door with a shovel Estrada found on the floor of the truck, but the cab was too crushed for the door to open, Potter said.

Calhoun quickly broke the passenger side window. Potter crawled through the broken window, grabbed the driver under the arms and, with the help of Estrada and Garcia, pulled the injured man from the truck, Potter said. He noticed distinctive dark circles around the driver’s eyes.

“We noticed it had raccoon eyes, which indicates it had suffered head trauma,” he said. “He was conscious but not alert.”

They stopped the man’s bleeding from several wounds and noticed that his neck was injured and swollen.

“We call this technique tapping the piano keys and tapping the spine. While I was doing this, I noticed a huge bulge in the upper part of his lumbar spine, which indicated that he had most likely broken his spine,” Potter said. . “It stuck out a lot.”

“Emergency services arrived in about an hour,” Potter said. The Okinawa Prefectural Police Department had no information about the crash or whether the driver could be fired, a spokesman said by phone Friday.

Potter thanked his father, Corpsman Tom Potter, and the Marines for giving him the knowledge and skills he needed to save his life that day.

“(My father) always taught me that common injuries in car accidents are head and neck injuries,” he said.

Tom Potter, who has been with the fire department in Montgomery County, Maryland, for more than 32 years, was “filled with pride and honor” when he heard about what his son had done, he told Stars and Stripes via Facebook Messenger on Friday.

“Growing up, Austin and his brothers always wanted to hear about my day and the calls I was making,” he said. “They wanted to learn how to help people when they are sick or injured.”

Tom Potter has said that he believes everyone should be taught how to give first aid to others.

“Austin has always been willing to help those in need and I am extremely proud of these Marines,” he said.

Austin Potter said he learned the “piano key” method and other skills through tactical Marine combat casualty care.

“If I can save someone’s life and they can continue to live with their family, brothers, sisters, mom, dad or whoever, husband or wife, that’s all that matters to me,” he said. “I was certainly honored to receive this award.”

Stars and Stripes reporter Keishi Koja contributed to this report.