How six Fort Stewart soldiers jumped into action when a colleague opened fire
'The fast action of these soldiers, under stress, and under trauma, and under fire, absolutely saved lives from being lost,' said Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.
On the morning of Aug. 6, Staff Sgt. Melissa Taylor was sitting at her desk in Fort Stewart, Georgia, checking emails when she heard 1st Sgt. Joshua Arnold yelling down the hallway about gunfire.
“I saw … smoke at the end of the hallway, and I noticed there was a soldier laying on the ground. So I immediately sprinted over to the soldier and started rendering aid,” the battalion career counselor and former combat medic told reporters a day later, on Aug 7.
An Army sergeant was shooting his fellow servicemembers in the building. Five soldiers were shot.
Taylor, of Winterhaven, Florida, and five other soldiers jumped into action. Sgt. Aaron Turner, of Farmington, New Mexico, who was unarmed, tackled the assailant. Master Sgt. Justin Thomas, Kingwood, Texas, also jumped on the shooter, whom officials identified as Sgt. Quornelius Radford. Others rushed to stanch their coworkers' bleeding.
Arnold, the soldier shouting through the hallway, who is from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, recalled the next day, “It’s our training that kicked in. Mine kicked in.”
The suspect, who was swiftly apprehended, had targeted his colleagues at his workplace, the 703rd Brigade Support Battalion's company operations facility, Army officials said. He remains in custody.
The five victims, all soldiers, survived and are expected to recover. Two, both women, remain hospitalized – one at the base’s Winn Army Community Hospital and the other at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, according to 3rd Infantry Division commander Brig. Gen. John Lubas.
The Army's top official, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, traveled to the south Georgia post to present medals to Taylor, Arnold and four other soldiers who responded to the shooting.
"The fast action of these soldiers, under stress and under trauma and under fire, absolutely saved lives from being lost," Driscoll said during a press conference on Aug. 7. He said that doctors credited the soldiers' medical aid with saving some of the victims’ lives.
The six soldiers received the Meritorious Service Medal, a prestigious decoration rarely presented to lower-ranking troops. Their battalion is part of the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, a tank unit that returned from a European deployment in summer 2024. Brigade support battalions such as the 703rd provide resupply, maintenance and other logistical support to larger combat units.
Thomas and Turner were honored for their work detaining the suspect. Arnold, Taylor, and two others – Staff Sgt. Robert Pacheco of Amsterdam, New York, and Sgt. Eve Rodarte of El Centro, California – were recognized for their work treating the shooting victims at the scene.
The award citation for Arnold, one of several read aloud at the ceremony, revealed that a fellow first sergeant was one of the victims. A first sergeant is the top enlisted soldier in a company-sized unit, ranging from 50 to 250 soldiers. The role carries a heightened responsibility for the troops in their charge.
As the victims recuperate, other survivors of the shooting have started to process the event.
“It will be a little bit before this moment hits you, and that’s ok,” said Driscoll while addressing the unit’s soldiers. He committed to providing counseling and other support services for as long as needed.
Taylor, who'd started the morning reading emails, told reporters she went home after the chaos on Aug. 6 and doted on her children.
“I made my kids’ favorite dinner,” she said.