Last summer Retired Sergeant 1st Class Joshua Farrell was driving on the way back to his house in Tulsa, Oklahoma when tragedy unfolded before his eyes.
Another automobile skidded out of control after driving over a large puddle on the highway. When the vehicle stopped moving, it was turned completely over. The driver, Caitlin Coffeen, was fine and successfully extracted herself from the wreck. Her five-month-old son Liam, however, was still buckled into his baby carseat and inside, upside down and in distress. Caitlin was on her way to take him to the emergency room — her husband, also a soldier in the 82n Sustainment Brigade — was away serving.
Farrell pulled out and immediately sprang into action. He someway got himself through one of the back windows, unstrapped the little boy from the upturned carseat and carried him away from the car and danger.
“As soldiers we’re conditioned to run to the sound of gunfire sort of speak, to inject ourselves in a situation where can do the most good,” Farrell later said. “That day there was no gunfire, but there was an emergency.”
“It’s the human thing to do, to help someone in their time of need.”
On Thursday the former NCO with Special Troops Battalion, 1st Theater Sustainment Command at Fort Bragg was bestowed with the branch’s highest honor for peacetime actions. The Soldier’s Medal.
The ceremony was held at a VFW in Tulsa.