Sgt. Harry Nixon saw something off during his regular perimeter check near Miesau Army Depot in Germany the evening of Oct. 20. By doubling back, the military police officer probably saved a local man's life.
Nixon, The 38, of the 95th Military Police Company from U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz, -year-old New Jersey native was driving a mountain road when he the member of the U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz 95th Military Police Company saw passed an older man laboring as he rode a bicycle as he passed.
"He was more in the center of the street and he was staggering and stumbling," Nixon said. He of what he guessed the man's age as was a 65-year-old man.
His first thought was that the man was "pretty hardcore." But the sight stuck in the back of his mind.
"I don't really know how to say it. Sometimes you just don't feel right about something. It just didn't feel right," Nixon. He turned said of what prompted him to turn around and returned to the two-kilometer straightaway. "When I saw he wasn't there, I knew there was no way he could ride his bicycle that fast out of the area."
He found the bike by the side of the road. He got out and found the man in a ditch next to the road. At first he suspected cardiac arrest and checked the man's vitals. He assessed that the civilian was in shock.
He later would learn that the man had low blood sugar and was suffering from insulin shock.
At first he couldn't reach the provost marshal's office using his patrol car's radio, and his mobile phone had no reception. He drove down the road until he found reception and called his desk sergeant.
An ambulance rushed the man him to the hospital for further care.
"Sgt. Nixon's professionalism, quick thinking and thoroughness helped save a local German man's life," Lt. Col. George B. Brown III, the garrison's director of emergency services, said in a the news release.
Nixon, who is married to a German woman, said he was glad he happened upon the man and didn't have to find out about him on the local news. He said people have asked if he feels like a hero; he doesn't.
"I was driving down the street, saw someone who needed help, and I helped them," Nixon said. "If you're walking around disgruntled and mean all day, you're not making the world a better place."
