Signal Soldier becomes unlikely hero

By Spc. Rochelle Kruger, 3rd Sustainment Brigade Public AffairsJanuary 20, 2012

Signal Soldier becomes unlikely hero
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FORT STEWART, Ga. - A hero doesn't always wear tights and go by an alias. Sometimes if you look hard enough, you may find a hero among your own ranks. Someone like Spc. Michael Steven Cox.

Specialist Cox, who works as a microwave systems operator--maintainer in Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Bde., Third Infantry Division, and his wife Chasity were returning to Fort Stewart from their hometown, Kernersville, N.C. Dec. 26 in bumper-to-bumper traffic when they saw a vehicle pulled over on the side of the road. An elderly woman moved frantically inside the car.

"You could tell something was wrong," Spc. Cox said. "She was hollering and beating on her passenger's chest inside the car."

The Cox's pulled over, followed by another concerned citizen to see if they could somehow assist. As it turned out, the passenger was the woman's husband, who had stopped breathing.

Specialist Cox and the other driver pulled the man out of the car, while Chasity Cox calmed the wife. They began team Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation on the man for 10 minutes until medical help arrived. This was the first time Spc. Cox had given CPR.

The elderly couple were from Virginia and did not have Family around, so Spc. Cox and his wife followed the ambulance to Coastal Care Hospital in Hardeeville, S.C. They sat with the distressed wife for an hour until she was stable enough to go back and see him. During that hour of conversation, they discovered that the man they saved was a wounded Vietnam veteran.

Specialist Cox did not boast about his heroic actions; he only told a handful of people about it in passing, when he was at work the next day. Major Charles Gaines-Hager, the 3rd Sustainment Brigade signal officer in charge was one of the few who heard the story first hand.

"It's a fantastic thing when a Soldier, or anybody for that matter, stops to render aid to a stranger," Maj. Gaines-Hager said. "The fact he did it shows us that he is very prepared in his day-to-day life."

The Army trains Soldiers to be prepared, ready for any situation that comes at them. But how many people would act like Spc. Cox has when something like this is thrown at them?

"Specialist Cox was able to take his training by the Army and apply it," Maj. Gaines-Hager said. "That's what it's all about."