Sgt. Ronny Pool and Staff Sgt. Javier Acosta saving the world one person at a time

The North Country Times reports that Sgt. Ronny Pool and Staff Sgt. Javier Acosta, two marines who likely never met but each served in Afghanistan and Iraq without using their combat lifesaver training until a drive home last week brought them together over the broken body of motorcyclist Anthony Vaughn.

Pool also saw Vaughn lying in the road, realized he had a trauma kit in his truck and rushed toward the injured man.

“It was a gruesome scene,” said Pool, a Hemet resident and native of De Soto, Kan., who has been in the Marine Corps for eight years and served seven months in Iraq in 2008 and 12 months in Afghanistan in 2010.

“I immediately thought of the training we get. ‘Stop the bleeding. Start the breathing. Protect the wound. And treat for shock.'”

Pool couldn’t find a tourniquet in his trauma kit, so Acosta —- a 14-year veteran of the Marine Corps —- suggested he use his belt. Without thinking, Pool said, he ripped his government-issued MCMAP uniform belt off and tied it around Vaughn’s upper left leg.

At that point, two emergency-medical-technician students arrived and helped Acosta stabilize Vaughn’s neck and remove the motorcyclist’s helmet.

Mr. Vaughn is still alive thanks to the quick actions of the two Marines;

“I feel me and Sgt. Pool did save the individual’s life,” Acosta said. “Nobody was helping him out, and with the severity of the trauma, I believe he honestly could have died. I’m really thankful I had another Marine next to me with the same training.”

Added Pool: “That’s why I joined the Marine Corps, to serve my country and serve my community. It would be a shame if I had all this training and didn’t use it.”

Category: Real Soldiers