MCB CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- "My priority was just making sure that he made it through the night and survived," said Sgt. Michelle Lescano, military police officer, Headquarters and Support Battalion, Marine Corps Installations East (MCIEAST)-Marine Corps Base (MCB) Camp Lejeune.
Two Marines from the Provost Marshal Office on MCB Camp Lejeune received the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Aug. 26, 2022, for saving the life of another Marine.
On May 19, 2022, at around 5 a.m., Lescano and U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Colton Richardson, along with other military police and civilian law enforcement officers from MCB Camp Lejeune, were dispatched to attend to a Marine who had sustained a life-threatening injury at Onslow Beach.
Lescano and Richardson arrived shortly after the initial responding police officer and quickly made their way to the end of the pier where the victim was located. Richardson and another officer determined that the space on the pier was insufficient to conduct life-saving measures and decided to move the victim off the pier, toward land. Richardson carried the victim to a safer location, 500 feet away, where responding law enforcement officers and Lescano were able to assess the victim. Lescano immediately directed another officer to apply direct pressure to the victim’s wound while waiting for MCB Camp Lejeune Fire and Emergency Services to arrive on scene. Lescano and Richardson's quick actions enabled the victim to survive his injury and eventually return to his unit.
When asked how Lescano felt about the situation the next day, she responded, "The one thing I was worried about was making sure he was okay." "[In our job,] we sometimes have a lack of closure, when they [victims] go in an ambulance, and no one comes back to update us [the reporting officers]," said Richardson. "It is on us to continue to stay up-to-date with the hospitals and with that individual. We take it upon ourselves to check in on them."
Lescano recently re-enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. Richardson said he hopes to return to the military police school house to teach Marines how to become technically and tactically proficient within their military occupational specialty.\