KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --
It was a Friday night, June 14, when Tech. Sgt. Jonathan Collett was finding his way back to base when he stumbled upon a man crawling in a front yard.
Not knowing what was going on, Collett minded his business and drove past, but something didn’t sit well with him.
“Something in my soul told me to turn around because he could’ve been in trouble,” said Collett, a 336th Training Squadron cyber surety student.
Collett turned around and pulled into the man’s driveway and asked if he needed help. The man replied yes and directed him to go inside his house to get a tourniquet. That is when Collett noticed the massive amounts of blood spewing from the man’s leg and rushed into action in an effort to preserve his life.
The injured man, Dennis Boney, a Harrison County Police Department deputy, was moving a broken entertainment system from his home to the road when he got injured.
“I forgot about the glass bottom shelf being broken,” said Boney. “When I got to the road I went to lower the entertainment system and it went through the back of my leg.”
Collett searched inside the home for the tourniquet but once he realized he could not find it, he rushed back outside, threw Boney over his shoulder and brought him inside to help him find the tourniquet.
After finding the tourniquet Collett applied it to Boney’s leg, elevated it to control the bleeding and wrapped towels around the wound to stop blood from going everywhere until emergency responders arrived.
“If Collett didn’t stop, I wouldn’t be here right now,” said Boney. “My daughter wouldn’t have a father and my girlfriend and I wouldn’t be celebrating.”
Several people passed by Boney before Collett arrived but if it weren’t for Collett’s gut feeling and sense of integrity then Boney might not be alive today. “When I fell, somebody actually stopped to see if I was okay,” said Boney. “But then he looked at me, looked at my cop car, looked back at me and said ‘I don’t want to get involved’ and drove off.”
Collett simply believes in doing the right thing when no one is looking and treating others how he wants to be treated. He was able to help another human being in need by simply using the Air Force core values and self-aid and buddy care training he’s received through the military.
“I would want somebody to stop for me if something looked out of the ordinary,” said Collett. “I didn’t know what was going on and the worst thing that man could’ve said to me was ‘Keep going I’m fine.’ I did it because it was the right thing to do.”