{"id":21799,"date":"2023-08-03T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=21799"},"modified":"2023-08-06T04:53:39","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T04:53:39","slug":"nps-students-quick-reactions-save-classmate-following-serious-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=21799","title":{"rendered":"NPS Students\u2019 Quick Reactions Save Classmate Following Serious Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"
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U.S. Army Maj. Joel Vinson and Maj. Harrison Leary, both of whom are Green Berets studying in NPS\u2019 Department of Defense Analysis, would have been perfectly comfortable with having the incident remain a rousing surf story shared among friends. But the heroism of their actions, captured in the award citation, speak to the significance of their efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The citation commended the \u201cexceptionally meritorious actions\u201d of Vinson and Leary \u201cto provide medical aid and emergency response leadership in a life-threatening crisis, [and] their clear and decisive actions in a time sensitive situation greatly aided efforts to prevent the untimely death of an injured Soldier.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The awards were presented in May by Army Brig. Gen. Guillaume Beaurpere, commanding general of the Special Operations Center of Excellence, during a visit to NPS to talk with students about the state of Special Operations Forces (SOF).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The event happened on Oct. 1, 2022, as four friends were hitting the waves at a popular Sand City beach in the chilly Monterey Bay. Army Maj. Mike Meier, a fellow NPS student, was the first in the water while Vinson, Leary and a fourth colleague monitored the waves from the beach.<\/p>\n

At some point while in the water, Meier\u2019s surfboard popped violently back at him in just the right orientation that the rear fin caught his leg, cutting it deeply. Not realizing the severity of the injury, Meier managed to get himself back to shore but was losing a lot of blood through his slashed wet suit. Fortunately, Meier\u2019s friends were watching and quickly jumped into action.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoel and I were able to reach him within seconds,\u201d Leary said. \u201cWe immediately applied the first tourniquet with Mike\u2019s own surf leash. We dragged him further out of the water and reassessed the tourniquet, his vitals and condition. He was conscious and able to assist us in applying the tourniquet.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy civilian neighbor, George McNeely, who was with us, assisted by applying direct pressure to the injury with both of his hands to stop the bleeding while I held the first tourniquet in place,\u201d he continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vinson had run back to the car to retrieve his cell phone to call 911. When he returned, he applied a second tourniquet using an additional surf leash. It wasn\u2019t long before first responders arrived on the scene, and immediately worked on getting the bleeding to subside, and applied a third tourniquet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJoel and I assisted in carrying him to the nearby ambulance,\u201d Leary added. \u201cHe was taken to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula where medical professionals determined he needed immediate surgery, so he was then transported to a Salinas hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meier was relieved and surprised his classmates were able to reach him so quickly and get control of his bleeding. Since he never lost consciousness during the ordeal, Meier recalls the event step by step.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew the gravity of the injury as soon as I saw the wound,\u201d Meier said. \u201cWe are laboriously trained to treat hemorrhaging wounds in combat, and I\u2019ve seen wounds like this downrange. I was well aware that if we didn\u2019t get it under control in a few minutes, I\u2019d be flatlining, and that was a pretty haunting realization which I still think about often.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHarry & J\u2019s (Joel\u2019s) quick and creative improvisation cut off the blood flow and mitigated the massive bleeding. After a few minutes, I felt my consciousness leveling out. Being the buddies that we are, it was our nature to weave humor into the situation. That kept my head in the game and got me through the worst of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

All four were surprised with how quickly events unfolded, and were pleased with their ability to help Meier.\u00a0The friends see each other every day, hang out on the weekends, have classes together, spend family time together, attend church, golf, play softball and work out together routinely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, just as in the field, they have each other\u2019s backs.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoel and I were thankful we were able to stay calm during this intense event,\u201d said Leary. \u201cBoth of us are Green Berets, have received vast amounts of medical cross-training in our careers, and are gratified that our training kicked in to be able to control the situation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was emotionally difficult for me, being that he is such a great friend of ours, and his injury was certainly life threatening,\u201d said Leary. \u201cIn the moment, it was just automatic. We did what we needed to do so he didn\u2019t die.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMike (Meier) was in surgery for several hours \u2026 And amputation was a very real concern at one point when the surgeons could not get blood flow to return to his leg,\u201d Leary continued. \u201cLuckily, the radiology team was able to successfully remove clotting and restore blood flow and Mike not only lived, but was able to keep his leg and has made a full recovery since the accident.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Army Maj. Joel Vinson and Maj. Harrison Leary, both of whom are Green Berets studying in NPS\u2019 Department of Defense Analysis, would have been perfectly comfortable with having the incident remain a rousing surf story shared among friends. But the heroism of their actions, captured in the award citation, speak to the significance of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21799"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21801,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21799\/revisions\/21801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}