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Airman rescues man from overturned car

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Sarah Stegman
  • 81st Training Wing Public Affairs
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AETCNS) --  March 6, Airman 1st Class George Olivo III, 81st Civil Engineer Squadron, received a phone call from his sick wife, Anna, asking him to take her to their physician.

Little did he know the drive to his Biloxi apartment would end up being a heroic event.

"I was driving westbound on Highway 90 behind a silver Pontiac when a Toyota truck veered into the Pontiac's lane," Airman Olivo said. "We were both in the right lane and the truck started pulling over and hit the Pontiac, forcing him off the road."

The Pontiac cut a hard right into concrete debris left over from Hurricane Katrina.

"All I remember seeing in my rearview mirror is the car doing flips in the air and landing on its top," he recalled.

After parking his car about a block away, he ran back to see if the driver needed help.

"The closer I got, the more I could see and smell gasoline," Airman Olivo said.

He said that at first he was afraid of getting too close to the car because he thought it was going to explode. "Then I thought, 'What if he has a family?' and that's when I rushed to the driver's side of the car.

"I took my (battle dress uniform) top off, wrapped it around my fist and forearm, grabbed a rock and yelled at the man to move his face," the Airman said.

"He couldn't hear me because he was screaming 'Someone help me -- I don't want to die,' but I went ahead and smashed the window open, and all I could smell were gas fumes that had filled the cab."

After breaking the window, Airman Olivo unclipped the man's seatbelt and removed the remaining glass around the edges of the window.

"Then I started to pull him out, and boy, was he a little heavy!" he said. "I moved him about 20 feet away and put him on my BDU top and used my body as shade against the sun."

"The driver was in a panic, but I did my best to keep him calm. A few minutes later, the fire department, police and an ambulance showed up," he said.

After the accident, Airman Olivo found out the man was treated and released from Biloxi Regional Medical Center March 8.

"I didn't get to see him in the hospital to see how he was doing, but I thank God that he is still alive and has another chance at life," Airman Olivo said.