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                         August 22, 2003

Cadets rescue family from burning vehicle

Story and photos by Jim Fox
Assistant Editor                                                                        

Saturday while returning from New York City after completing some errands in preparation for Ring Weekend Cadets 1st Class Casey Terrell and Mike Anderson pulled a mother and her two daughters from a burning car on the George Washington Bridge as they headed back to West Point from Manhattan.

Anderson, from Vienna, Va., and Terrell, from St. Augustine, Fla. saw a car ahead of them with a smoking engine as they headed west on the GWB about 5 p.m. Saturday. As they passed the vehicle, intending to stop and lend assistance, they noticed that the driver was on a cell phone and oblivious to the fact that her car was also on fire.

"It was just a reflex action," the 21-year-old Anderson said. "We saw fire and we both thought -- we have to get those people out of the car."

Anderson, an American Politics major and his company’s evaluations officer, pulled his car out in front of the stricken vehicle trying to stop traffic as the two seniors jumped out yelling at the family to get out of the car.

"The driver was on the phone with her mother," Terrell said. "She was worried about her smoking engine."

Terrell, 22, got the two girls out of the car, while Anderson pulled the mother out. The five of them ran about 30 feet away and about a minute later the entire vehicle was engulfed in flame.

After all this others began to stop, the cadets related, as the newcomers helped stop traffic and lent Terrell a cell phone to call 911.

The cadets and two other men tried unsuccessfully to put the fire out as they waited for the fire department to arrive.

Terrell, an English major and the Brigade Asst. Spirit Officer, said "we had to do something to help. I’m just glad that we got to them in time and got them out of the car."