Blake Hall
Last month, a quick thinking Army sergeant rescued a six-month old infant from an overturned car leaking gasoline.
Caitlin Coffeen, an Army wife, was driving her infant son Liam to the Womack Army Medical Center to treat his flu symptoms when she struck a puddle and flipped her car. The vehicle then hit a utility pole and snapped several cables.
Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Farrell was driving behind Coffeen when he saw the accident happen. He immediately pulled over and found Coffeen disoriented and screaming outside her car. She told him that between the electric cables dangling above the car and the wreckage, she couldn’t get to her son.
While other drivers sped by the accident without trying to help or call the police, Farrell acted. He climbed through the rear window of the car and found Liam hanging upside-down in his car seat. Farrell calmed the child down and got him out.
“I would want somebody to do it for my family if the roles were reversed,” Farrell said of the incident.
It was only after he rescued the baby that Farrell learned that Coffeen was the wife of 1st Lt. Brian Coffeen of the 189th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 82nd Sustainment Brigade–the same battalion as Farrell’s commanding officer, Lt. Col. Landis Maddox. At the time, Brian was waiting for his family at the hospital. Coffeen’s battalion is now recommending that Farrell be honored for his heroic deeds.