Marine Corps Cpl. Austin Potter is awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, Oct. 10, 2024. (Michael Taggart/U.S. Marine Corps)

A Marine credited his father and the Marine Corps for the techniques he and three other service members used to save an accident victim from a burning wreck on Okinawa earlier this month.

Rifleman Cpl. Austin Potter and mortarman Lance Cpl. Samuel Calhoun, both at the time with 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, received the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal on Oct. 10 for their actions just four days earlier. Regimental commander Col. Richard Barclay gave the awards during a ceremony at Camp Schwab.

Lance Cpl. Stephen Estrada, also a mortarman, and Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Jett Garcia, a religious program specialist, received certificates of appreciation at the same ceremony.

“I saw that someone was in need of help, and I was there to give service,” Potter, of Falling Waters, W.V., told Stars and Stripes by phone Oct. 22. “That’s all that really mattered to me.”

The four were in a taxi heading to Schwab on the Okinawa expressway shortly after midnight Oct. 6 when they came upon a wrecked kei, a small truck, Potter said.

Three Marines and a sailor were awarded Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals or certificates of appreciation at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, Oct. 10, 2024. (Michael Taggart/U.S. Marine Corps)

“The taxi driver came to a complete halt, the tires were screeching, and we saw a crashed truck in the middle of the expressway,” Potter said from California, where he returned at the end of his unit’s rotational deployment.

With smoke billowing from the truck cab, Potter noticed someone in the vehicle sticking his hands out in distress.

“We all come running out and we ran to the disabled truck,” he said. “I can tell that he was definitely disoriented; he didn’t know where he was.”

The troops tried to pry open the driver’s door with a shovel Estrada found in the truck bed, but the cab was too crushed for the door to open, Potter said.

Calhoun quickly punched out the passenger-side window. Potter crawled through the broken window, grabbed the driver under his armpits and with Estrada and Garcia’s help removed the injured man from the truck, Potter said. He saw tell-tale dark circles around the driver’s eyes.

“We noticed that he had raccoon eyes, indicating that he received head trauma,” he said. “He was conscious, but not alert.”

They stopped the man’s bleeding from several wounds and noticed his neck was injured and swollen.

“This technique we call piano keys, tapping up the spine, and when I was doing the tapping of the spine, I noticed a huge bulge on the upper lumbar of his spine that showed that he more than likely broke his back,” Potter said. “It was sticking out a lot.”

Emergency services arrived in about an hour, Potter said. Okinawa Prefectural Police Department had no information on the accident or the driver available for release, a spokesman said by phone Friday.

Potter thanked his father, paramedic Tom Potter, and the Marine Corps for giving him the knowledge and ability to save a life that day.

“[My father] always taught me that those common injuries in car accidents are head trauma and neck injuries,” he said.

Tom Potter, who has worked for Montgomery County, Md., Fire Rescue for over 32 years, was “filled with pride and honor” when he heard about what his son had done, he told Stars and Stripes by Facebook Messenger on Friday.

“Growing up, Austin and his brothers always wanted to hear about my day and the calls that I ran,” he said. “They wanted to learn how to help people when they were sick or injured.”

Tom Potter said he believes everyone should be taught how to render first aid to others.

“Austin has always been willing to help those in need, and I am extremely proud of these Marines,” he said.

Austin Potter said he learned the “piano keys” method and other skills through the Marines’ Tactical Combat Casualty Care.

“If I can save someone’s life and he can continue to go on living with his family, brothers, sisters, mom or dad or whoever, husband or wife, that’s all that matters to me,” he said. “I was definitely honored to receive that award.”

Stars and Stripes reporter Keishi Koja contributed to this report.