Keep a pocketknife handy. If you use a soldier's medical supplies, be sure to follow up with his unit's medic. And it never hurts to have a hard-working senior enlisted leader on your side.

While the rapid response of Staff Sgt. Jeremy Samuels to a fiery three-car wreck last year near Fort Campbell, Kentucky, earned him a Soldier's Medal, the May 20 award ceremony likely wouldn't have taken place without those three axioms.

First, the knife: Samuels was driving back from the store Aug. 2 when he saw the crash — two sedans colliding, one of them careening into a third vehicle, flames shooting skyward. He got out of his truck and raced to assist a female passenger in one of the burning cars, but he couldn't get the door open.

"I pulled my pocketknife out, and started hitting the window in the corner, so it would break," Samuels said. "I always have one on me. Always."

The window gave way, and Samuels, a medic then attending the Combat Skills Training Course (the "Green Platoon") before filling his assignment with 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, pulled the crash victim to safety. With an assist from other Good Samaritans on the scene, Samuels treated her injuries and offered first aid to the other crash victims.

None suffered life-threatening injuries, but they weren't the only ones hurt.

"I didn't notice it at first, [but] somebody said I was bleeding," Samuels recalled.

"I asked if I could borrow some of the stuff out of their bleeder kits, to dress up my hand," he said. "They were talking about how they were going into the field the next day, and their medic was going to be mad that they'd used stuff he supplied them.

"I told them, I'm a medic, I understand. If he has a problem, tell him to call me and I'll explain it to him. ... Myself, in his position, I'd have been irritated, but I'd have restocked their stuff."

Brig. Gen. Erik Peterson, the commanding general of the United States Army Special Operations Aviation Command, poses with Staff Sgt. Jeremy Samuels, a medic with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, after awarding him the Soldier’s Medial May 20, 2015. Samuels received this award for acts of heroism during a 2014 multi-vehicle wreck near Fort Campbell, Ky.

Brig. Gen. Erik Peterson, head of Army Special Operations Aviation Command, poses with Staff Sgt. Jeremy Samuels, after awarding him the Soldier's Medial.

Photo Credit: Staff Sgt. Gaelen Lowers/Army

That small courtesy — Samuels said the medic never called him — had the unintended consequence of attaching Samuels' name to the rescue. While he reported his injury and the incident to his command that weekend, he didn't offer the kinds of details required to receive a Soldier's Medal, the Army's highest non-combat award for heroism.

Collecting those details fell to Sgt. 1st Class Ted Sager, who was in charge of Samuels' training.

"He did more work for the award than I did," Samuels said, tracking down witness statements from multiple people on the scene and putting together the necessary paperwork.

Samuels, 32, completed the training in September and took his spot in the 160th in December. Brig. Gen. Erik Peterson, head of Army Special Operations Aviation Command, presented him with his medal at the May ceremony.

"Usually, I try my best to get the certificate or whatever on the DL and go about my business," said Samuels, who last participated in an awards ceremony when receiving an Army Commendation Medal and an ARCOM with "V" device while with 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, more than two years ago. "That was not an option for this one, apparently."

About Kevin Lilley

Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.

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