Master Sgt. Sarah Cobb and Lt. Col. Daniel Dierfeldt were awarded the Kentucky Distinguished Service Medal during a ceremony at the Kentucky Air National Guard Base here Dec. 14 for their role in saving the life of an Airman undergoing cardiac arrest.
While walking into the Headquarters Building from the parking lot last August, Cobb heard a “strangulated gasping sound” and noticed an Airman lying on the ground. Cobb, an aerospace flight and operational medical technician in the 123rd Medical Group, had just observed the Airman exercising moments prior.
“I was actually late for work that day,” Cobb said. “At that point in the day, I don’t think anybody would normally have been at that spot in the parking lot to find him. I just happened to hear him and thought that maybe I should get a closer look.”
Upon reaching the Airman, she determined that he had no pulse. Cobb directed another Airman to dial 911 while she called Dierfeldt, who had just returned to his office after exercising.
“I had just got back to my desk,” said Dierfeldt, chief of aerospace medicine for the 123rd Medical Group. “I still had my earbuds in, which ended up being very helpful. I called the Base Defense Operations Center on the phone as I’m running outside. When I got there, we assessed him and determined he needed CPR.”
Cobb and Dierfeldt began taking turns administering chest compressions along with other Airmen, who had joined the growing scene, until the 123rd Civil Engineer Squadron’s Fire and Emergency Services Flight arrived to attach an automatic external defibrillator.
“I’ve only done chest compressions on a manakin, and I’ve never experienced somebody in cardiac arrest before,” Cobb said. “I had never performed CPR on an actual person before, and I’ve never had to call 911 to initiate an emergency response like that.”
According to Dierfeldt, the patient’s pulse soon returned, and he was awake, lucid and speaking when the ambulance arrived.
Dierfeldt described the outcome as “extremely lucky.”
“When I’m training people on CPR, I generally tell my students that if we’re doing CPR, somebody has died for a reason,” Dierfeldt said. “They have effectively died and we’re doing what we can to bring them back to us. The instances of a successful CPR are not great. But you also have that middle ground that’s not great either, where you get them back but maybe they’re now bedridden, blind or have some kind of residual impact from their brain not getting enough oxygen and blood flow.
“We avoided all of those outcomes here, which is awesome.”
The entire incident, which lasted just 11 minutes, highlighted the importance of readiness training for Cobb and her teammates.
“It definitely changes my perspective,” she said. “We all get tired of our training sometimes, especially as drill-status Guardsmen. It can be monotonous and boring, but it really shows that the repetition of it drills into you and makes your reactions to these situations automatic. It works, and it can save lives.”
With gratitude for all parties involved, Dierfeldt said the outcome reinforced two things in his mind about members of the Kentucky Air National Guard.
“First, we’ve been trained to do what we do,” he said. “Whether it’s here or at your civilian job, we’re going to act when we’re called upon to act.
“Second, we care about people. We’re not going to turn a blind eye or ignore things. Sergeant Cobb was in the right place at the right time and took the extra step to investigate when she noticed something out of the ordinary. Multiple people involved themselves in the situation when they didn’t need to. This story had a good ending because everybody responded the way they did.”
| Date Taken: |
03.31.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
03.31.2026 13:59 |
| Story ID: |
561665 |
| Location: |
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: |
21 |
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This work, Guard Airmen earn Kentucky Distinguished Service Medal for life-saving actions, by MSgt Joshua Horton, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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