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    Good Samaritans not in short supply on JBM-HH

    Good Samaritans not in short supply on JBM-HH

    Photo By Brian Parker | Sgt. David Smith, left, and Sgt. John Massey, both with the 289th Military Police...... read more read more

    JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VA, UNITED STATES

    02.21.2014

    Courtesy Story

    Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall

    By Julia LeDoux
    Pentagram Staff Writer

    JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - A pair of military police officers are being hailed by their leadership as good Samaritans after a routine traffic stop turned into a medical emergency recently on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.

    “We were just doing an ordinary, routine patrol,” said Sgt. John W. Massey of the 289th Military Police Company.

    Massey and Sgt. David L. Smith were recently on Gorgas Road preparing to turn onto Sheridan Avenue when they noticed a vehicle pull up to the stop sign on Sheridan Road.

    “He did everything right,” said Massey. “We came to our stop and he proceeded to pull forward. We pulled in behind him.”

    Massey noticed that the driver, a retired Marine and Vietnam veteran, appeared disoriented. The driver was also traveling at about 10 miles an hour below the posted speed limit.

    “We were starting to impede the flow of traffic,” Massey continued. “I just thought he might have been lost. He crossed the double yellow [line] and failed to maintain his lane three different times.”

    The pair then initiated a traffic stop on the basis that they felt the driver needed help.

    “I just wanted to see if he needed help finding wherever it was he needed to go,” said Massey.

    Massey flipped the lights of his patrol vehicle on, but the driver did not stop. Confident that the man had seen the lights and knew he was behind him, Massey sounded his siren a couple of times. The driver eventually stopped.

    “There was other traffic on the road, which is one of the reasons I wanted to stop him and see if he needed help and get him on his way,” he said.

    The driver had his window down and Massey asked if he needed help.

    “He just kind of looked up at me and wasn’t really putting normal sentences together,” said Massey. “He seemed really confused. I took a step back for a minute and re-evaluated what was going on.”

    Massey then leaned back into the window and began asking the driver questions.

    “He just seemed to be confused and puzzled; he didn’t appear to know where he was,” Massey said.

    Massey requested that the patrol supervisor come out. Massey explained what was going on and a dispatcher made contact with the man’s wife.

    “His wife, without any hesitation said he was a diabetic and his blood sugar level plummeted and he basically went into diabetic shock behind the wheel,” he continued.

    Paramedics from the Fort Myer Fire Department discovered that the man’s blood sugar was seriously low. The man was transported by Arlington County to a hospital, where he was successfully treated.

    Massey and Smith aren’t the only good Samaritans to recently help someone out in need at the joint base. Community members Willie and Lynne Phillips were recently at the Post Exchange on the Fort Myer portion of the joint base when a 90-year-old woman fainted while at the cash register. Military police officer Spc. Michael Hughes responded. A check of the woman’s vital signs showed everything was fine. That’s when the Phillips stepped up and offered to drive her to her son’s house in Fairfax, ensuring that she arrived home safely.

    The Pentagram will continue to follow these stories.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 02.21.2014
    Date Posted: 02.21.2014 09:16
    Story ID: 120953
    Location: JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VA, US

    Web Views: 50
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN