Military Matters: Fort Carson soldier helps injured crash victim
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – It was easily the scariest moment of her life, and now, a Colorado woman is crediting the selfless service of a Fort Carson soldier who helped her through it.
It was a normal Saturday evening for Dawn Gaede, who was headed home after seeing a movie.
“Just suddenly to me it was out of the blue, I didn’t see it, nothing, crash,” she said.
Gaede and another vehicle collided, sending car parts all over the Cheyenne Mountain Boulevard and Highway 115 intersection.
“I just was spun around and I just remember going anyway forward through the steering wheel and just the impact,” she said. “I truly thought it was over.”
As luck would have it, First Lieutenant Michael Dompierre happened to be in the area when the accident occurred. After getting out of his own car to control traffic away from the scene, that’s when he noticed Gaede.
“Dawn was walking around kind of in shock and crying and yelling a little bit,” Dompierre said.
“I was kind of just wandering and then someone came up to me, and it was a gentleman, that was you, Michael, and you sat me down, asked me if I was hurt, asked me how I’m doing,” said Gaede.
Gaede was shaken up and complaining of neck pain, and that’s when Dompierre used his military skills to move her inside a warm car where he could help stabilize her neck.
“The biggest thing to do is maintain military bearing and just try to figure out what the problem is and how to fix it,” he said.
Dompierre’s former unit instructor also happened to be driving home when he came across the scene and recognized Dompierre.
“He is kind of the quiet professional behind the scenes,” said Major Jason Gallardo. “Always does his job and never looks for recognition and it’s guys like that that interact in our community that make the military real for the community.”
Gallardo also said Dompierre isn’t the type of person who likes to bring attention to himself.
“I don’t like attention,” said Dompierre. “I’ve always believed in putting others first and I just tried to do what I could that night to help her.”
Gaede suffered broken ribs, a bruised chest and whiplash from the accident, but says it was a miracle that Dompierre was there by her side.
“I’ll never forget his kindness. I’ll never forget his love and his giving to me,” Gaede said. “I had no idea he was military.”