Petty Officer 1st Class Cayla George, assigned to the Naval Air Station Sigonella public works department, receives the Seabee Memorial Scholarship Association's 2023 Everyday Hero Award from Senior Chief Petty Officer Marc Comaduran at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport, Miss., on Nov. 16, 2023. The award was created to recognize Seabees for heroic actions, on or off duty. (James Hong/U.S. Navy)

NAPLES, Italy — A Navy Seabee whose quick thinking helped prevent a suicide earlier this year is ensuring that more sailors have the assistance they need to navigate the rigors of life in the service.

Petty Officer First Class Cayla George this year helped establish an Alcoholics Anonymous chapter at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily. That effort followed a February episode in which a co-worker tried to end their life.

George’s reaction to a phone call from a number she didn’t recognize is credited with initiating a team response that saved the sailor’s life, the Navy said in a statement.

The caller said the service member was in their barracks room attempting suicide, George said Dec. 19.

With the person still on the phone, George texted base duty personnel to alert them. After hanging up, she made calls that reached security and first responders, who were able to get to the service member in time, George said.

“I was very, very thankful I was able to answer the phone, take it seriously and be able to immediately offer some aid and start the process of getting the service member some help,” George said.

The sailor had given the caller George’s cellphone number as someone on base to contact. Previously, George had spent time with the sailor after noticing they were having trouble sleeping and potentially feeling alone and homesick. Those problems could be indicators a person may need help, she said.

After spending a day with the sailor, George thought they would be OK. It seemed the sailor was just going through typical stress and needed more interaction with people who cared about them, she said.

But the attempted suicide “just goes to show that, sometimes, we don’t know,” George said.

“Sometimes, we just have to be very, very aware and be ready to help one another if it comes up,” she said.

For her actions, George received the Seabee Heritage Command’s 2023 Everyday Hero Award during a ceremony at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport, Miss., on Nov. 16. 

The Seabee Heritage Command’s Everyday Hero Award recognizes sailors in the Seabee community for their heroic actions. The 2023 award was given to Petty Officer First Class Cayla George for her efforts to help a sailor trying to end their life. George, a Seabee assigned to Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily, was recognized during a ceremony at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport, Miss., on Nov. 16. (James Hong/U.S. Navy)

A facilities management specialist who has served in the Navy for nearly nine years, George has been assigned to Sigonella since 2022. She is responsible for 81 facilities and 22 tenant commands at the base, according to the Navy.

She also is the team lead in her department for a Navy program that works to help sailors better overcome stress and problems in life. And George is the assistant drug and alcohol program adviser, she said.

As a volunteer, George was part of a group at NAS Sigonella that reestablished memorial crosses for service members killed in traffic accidents near the base in November, and she is the general service representative for the base AA chapter.

In the wake of the suicide attempt, George coordinated training to help public works department colleagues who might be contemplating suicide and ensured others struggling with the news that a fellow sailor had tried to end their life got help, according to the Navy’s statement.

George’s commitment to helping other sailors, especially those new in the service, is rooted in her first years in the Navy, she said.

She remembers tough deployments to Djibouti and Somalia. There were few conversations and resources to help her prepare for and cope with stress and exhaustion.

Limited help, such as brief conversations about stress and suggestions to talk about it with a chaplain, came only after a stressful situation. More guidance and resources were needed to help her be a stronger sailor, George said.

“That would go for all of our junior sailors,” she said. “The more resources we have, the stronger we’re going to be as a team and as a Navy.”

Suicides among sailors have been on the rise since 2006, according to the Navy’s website.

In 2022, 71 active-duty sailors killed themselves, a rate of 20.6 per 100,000, according to the Defense Department’s annual report on suicide in the military.

The most current data on the Navy’s website indicates that as of Aug. 9, 41 active-duty sailors had taken their own lives.

The Navy isn’t the only branch grappling with suicide. Last year, 331 active-duty service members militarywide died by suicide, a rate of 25.1 per 100,000, according to the DOD report.

George said the service member she helped has returned to the U.S. She hasn’t spoken with them but has learned they are doing well.

“It was good to know that one (potential loss) went the other way,” she said.