CG awards medal to HQ Marine

7 Feb 2003 | Cpl. Alisha R. Fitzgerald Marine Corps Training and Education Command

Brigadier Gen. Joseph J. McMenamin, commanding general of the Depot and Eastern Recruiting Region, awarded the Navy/Marine Corps Medal for Heroic Peacetime Actions to Lance Cpl. Joseph Carman, admin clerk, Headquarters and Service Bn. S-1, at the morning colors ceremony in front of Barrow Hall Jan. 31.
Carman rescued a Beaufort woman and her child from their burning car after they had an accident on County Shed Rd. April 25.
He was traveling in his vehicle behind them when the accident occurred. At the time of the incident, Carman, who is no stranger to acting in the face of emergencies, never expected to be recognized in this magnitude.
"I'd been in a similar situation before where I had to act quickly," he said. "When my family and I lived in Virginia, there was a rather severe blizzard. We had a wood-burning stove in our house. It caught on fire and the house caught on fire. Luckily, my dog woke me up. The smoke had already filled the house, including the upstairs bedrooms. I had to run into the other rooms and get my brother and sister and also wake my mom and dad up."
In the case of the woman and child in the car accident, Carman felt he had no choice but to do what he did. Though there were several other bystanders on the scene, he's not sure the accident wouldn't have been more tragic had he not been there.
"When I pulled up, they were all just standing there," he said. "Most of the other people were just kind of in awe, watching what was happening. They didn't really know what to do."
The woman in the car had no idea Carman was a Marine and later called and thanked him.
"It was just before Christmas when she called," said Carman. "She just couldn't thank me enough for what I'd done. I told her I was just doing what had to be done."
The accident occurred when, according to Carman, the woman had been trying to do something else while driving, not paying attention to the road and she swerved, hitting the car in front of her. The other vehicle involved did a complete spin around, while the woman's car came to an abrupt stop. Though he's not quite sure how the woman's car caught on fire, Carman knew he had to act quickly, especially when he heard a baby crying.
He removed the child from the car and handed it to a bystander. When he told the woman she needed to get out of the car, she informed him her legs were stuck. He knew if he told her the car was on fire, she would immediately begin panicking. Remaining calm, he managed to get the woman out and move her to a safe distance.
"I just reacted," he said. "I would've done the same in any other emergency situation."
According to Carman's Staff NCOIC, Staff Sgt. Donald Greene, the day the incident happened, Carman arrived late to work, but didn't give a reason.
"His SNCO at the time, Staff Sgt. Laura Wyatt, gave him a pretty good chewing out about his tardiness," said Greene. "Carman quietly accepted his reprimand and proceeded to go on about his work, saying nothing about the accident. He had given the state trooper on the scene his work number and asked him to call his work section to explain what he had done. He was very humble about it and wasn't looking for any fanfare."
Needless to say, Wyatt immediately relinquished her reprimand and replaced it with congratulatory praise, as did the rest of his work section.
Since working with Carman, Greene says he wasn't surprised to hear he had performed such a heroic act.
"He's very quiet and unassuming," said Greene. "He does his work and goes on about his business. In regards to saving the woman and child, I knew that he did it because it was the thing to do, plain and simple."

Marine Corps Training and Education Command