Sgt. Kevin Peach was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal in a battalion ceremony at Camp Lejeune Aug. 8 for rescuing a man from a burning vehicle.
Peach, an infantryman with 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, was awarded the medal, which is the highest non-combat award for heroism by the Department of the Navy.
“We were driving down I-5 in California heading back to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and a car pulled out in front of us, swerved, hit a wall going about 65 mph and then rolled a couple of times,” Peach said in a Marine Corps story.
Peach saw the smoke and knew he didn’t have much time before the car caught fire.
“I was scared the entire time but I saw a lifeless body sitting in the car and I wasn’t just going to turn my head and do nothing about it,” Peach said in the story.
Peach and a friend pulled off the back hatch of the car after trying unsuccessfully to break the windows. Peach then climbed into the overturned, burning vehicle.
Peach exited the car to grab a flare from another driver who had stopped to help. He went back into the vehicle and was able to cut the seatbelt and pull the man to safety.
Following the incident, Peach was hospitalized for smoke inhalation, according to the story.
“Sgt. Peach is the embodiment of what we look for in our [non-commissioned officers],” Lt. Col. Reginald McClam, commanding officer of 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, said in the story. “I’m proud of him and I know the family that he brought into the Marine Corps by saving their family, is happy he was there.”
Mackenzie Wolf is an editorial intern for Military Times.
