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thedrifter
06-23-06, 10:21 AM
June 22, 2006

Lance corporal awarded medal for life-saving response

By Beth Zimmerman
Times staff writer


A Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based lance corporal was awarded a medal for his heroic actions that saved a man’s life in New York on a winter day in January 2005.

Lance Cpl. James Stewart, 20, with Lejeune’s 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal on June 12 for heroism demonstrated January 3, 2005.


Stewart, who was a private at the time, was traveling on Interstate 87 with Pfcs. Greg LaFountain, William Patnode, and Charles Meskunas to check in at Recruiting Station Albany, N.Y., for recruiter’s assistance duty, a 1st Marine Corps District spokesman in Garden City, N.Y., said.

A fuel truck traveling on the same highway rammed into the back of a tractor trailer in an accident that left the vehicles in flames. When the Marines discovered the wreck, they quickly responded.

According to a Jan. 20 report by the (Plattsburgh, N.Y.) Press Republican, LaFountain and Patnode quickly drove off in search of a cell phone signal in order to call for help. Meanwhile, Stewart and Meskunas dragged the injured driver of the burning fuel truck to safetyand treated him for shock.

The recruiting station submitted the four leathernecks for awards the same month, an administrative official with 1MCD said. Meskunas and Stewart were both approved for the Navy and Marine Corps Medal in May. LaFountain and Patnode were approved for Navy Achievement Medals in March 2005 for their role in the trucker’s rescue.

“I didn’t expect this,” Stewart said after receiving the medal. “I was just doing my duty as a Marine and as a person.”

Ellie