JOINT BASE McGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. – Two mechanics put their skills as Soldiers and civilian firefighters to use rescuing an 87-year-old woman who spent the weekend stuck in a Cadillac in the woods.
Staff Sgt. Dana Francis and Sgt. Tommy Coppola, members of G Company 186th Brigade Support Battalion, Massachusetts Army National Guard, found the woman Monday afternoon.
The Soldiers were looking for a suitable location to conduct recovery training and spotted the Cadillac, which had become stuck in soft sand along a wooded tank trail.
"At first we didn't know what to think of it because it was suspicious," Francis said, adding that they honked the horn several times before approaching the vehicle.
The car had all its doors open and a sunshade in the windshield. Francis said that was when they spotted the woman slumped in the backseat. They called out to her, but she was "unresponsive."
"We knew she was breathing," Francis said, adding they didn't want to startle or otherwise endanger the woman without medical equipment.
The two non-commissioned officers, who are civilian firefighters immediately headed to a position nearby where members of A Battery, 1st Battalion, 101st Field Artillery Regiment, were conducting part of their annual training.
Francis and Coppola located Spc. John Shively and Pfc. Aaron Amardey-Wellington, both medics with Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1st Battalion, 101st Field Artillery Regiment and guided them to the scene to assess the woman.
"I ran up to the vehicle and found she was just waking up," Coppola said. "We were thinking the worst when we first started." The woman was confused at first and unable to explain how she got stuck so deep in the woods, which border Highway 539.
After helping the woman into a military ambulance, they learned she became stuck in the woods Saturday morning and had not had anything to eat or drink, except some rainwater from passing thunderstorms. It appeared she was suffering from severe dehydration and possibly heat illness. The weather conditions were extremely hot and the heat index rose more than 100 degrees during the day.
The four men provided the woman with plenty of water to drink, put her on oxygen, and assisted Air Force security personnel and Fort Dix Ambulance crews when they arrived at the scene.
Lt. Col. Jeffrey M. Holloway, commander of the 1st Battalion, 101st Field Artillery Regiment, praised the four Soldiers for their actions.
"It was by chance that the contact team was traveling down this remote tank trail and came across the elderly woman. Their response and quick action are just another example of what being a Citizen-Soldier is about," Holloway said.
"Those four individuals did the right thing," Holloway said. "They immediately knew what to do. I'm extremely proud of these great Soldiers."