Photo By Senior Airman Regan Enriquez | U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Abigail Fienco, 628th Logistics Readiness Squadron quality...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE LINDSEY GRAHAM, S.C. – "He kept saying he thought he was gonna die and he didn't want to die. I kept telling him, I got you. It's going to be okay."
She was kneeling in the middle of Dorchester Road, with her hands pressed against a teenager’s gunshot wound when she said those words. Minutes earlier, she had been driving a government vehicle off base on a routine errand, dropping off a truck for maintenance.
The first sign that something was wrong was almost nothing at all. Then, pedestrians were running across the busy roadway in the middle of the day. Cars had stopped, a crowd had gathered and someone lay motionless in the street.
"I thought it was just a car accident," said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Abigail Fienco, 628th Logistics Readiness Squadron quality assurance evaluator. “But there were a bunch of people standing around and nobody was helping the person on the ground."
She stopped her vehicle and ran towards the scene.
From this moment on, her actions on this day would earn Fienco the Non-Commissioned Officers Association Military Vanguard Award. This award is presented annually to one enlisted member from each branch of the armed forces for a single act of heroism, on or off duty.
As she crossed Dorchester Road, she noticed weapons scattered across the pavement.
"I was thinking it was weird," she remembered. "But I don't think my brain was keeping up with what I was doing."
The teenager told her he'd been shot. She didn't fully realize the severity of his injuries until he said he couldn't feel his legs.
Her training took over.
She started working through her training; assess the wound, control the bleeding, keep him talking and keep him still. As she worked, a second victim stumbled towards her and collapsed.
Fienco quickly instructed a bystander on how to continue treating the first victim before turning her attention to the second.
"There are life threatening injuries right now," she said. "This guy could be paralyzed so we need to make sure nobody's moving him. We need to communicate clearly to 911 where we are but then also maintain evidence. It was very systematic in my head, what exactly needed to happen." She wasn't alone.
Senior Airman Channon Clifton, who had been driving a separate vehicle, followed her into the scene, called 911 and worked to secure the area and keep traffic away from the victims.
“He had a van driver grab cones out of his truck and block off the road and stood there to make sure that we didn't get hit by oncoming traffic,” she said. “Cars were still trying to go through the cones and everything.”
Emergency responders arrived approximately 18 minutes after the initial 911 call, delayed by heavy traffic surrounding the incident. Fienco briefed firefighters, police officers and emergency medical personnel on both victims before helping stabilize the second victim.
It wasn't until she was walking away that the weight of what had happened began to settle in.
"I don't think anybody around lunchtime, just doing their job, expects to find themselves in the middle of a shooting," she said.
Not knowing whether either victim had survived, Fienco later called her husband, a firefighter stationed overseas, with one question she couldn’t stop asking herself.
Was there anything more she could have done?
Days later a detective called with the answer, both victims had survived.
"That's when I kind of took a deep breath," she said. "I didn't do more harm, I guess."
Fienco's supervisor at the time, U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Eric Childress, 628th Logistics Readiness Squadron Ground Transportation superintendent, said her actions reflected the same professionalism she displayed every day.
"There are not many individuals that I have encountered in my career that have had the opportunity to prove their ability to act with precision and focus, without regard to themselves,” Childress said. “Staff Sgt. Fienco has displayed that characteristic, personifying the core value of Service Before Self."
Childress said her response in the moment exemplified the leadership she has shown within the squadron, stepping into responsibilities above her rank during manning shortages and helping the unit absorb a new Aerial Port of Embarkation mission from Norfolk.
A manning shortage is one kind of pressure.
A gunshot wound beneath your hands is another.
On Dorchester Road, Fienco didn't have time to think about awards or recognition. There were two people bleeding in the roadway who needed help. Her response that day ultimately earned the Vanguard Award, but for Fienco, the recognition will always come second to knowing two people went home alive.
| Date Taken: | 08.07.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 08.12.2026 09:08 |
| Story ID: | 572190 |
| Location: | NORTH CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 22 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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