A Wisconsin Army National Guard warrant officer currently on active duty with the National Guard Bureau has been recognized for selfless service for providing first aid to gunshot victims at a civilian hospital in Alabama in late June.

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Miguel Flores, attending a warrant officer leadership course at Fort Rucker, Alabama, had accompanied a classmate — who suffered a head wound while falling during an afternoon run — to the emergency room in nearby Enterprise, Alabama on June 25. While emergency room staff were tending to the classmate, four gunshot victims entered the lobby.

Flores and another classmate immediately began assisting the victims in the absence of emergency room personnel. Flores helped one victim with a head wound into a lobby chair and applied pressure to the wound.

“At this time another man was being assisted into the lobby, and he had blood running from his left shoulder down through his sweatpants,” Flores said in an e-mail. “The victims was soaked in blood and pleading for help. I started speaking to the victim in an effort to learn about his injuries and to keep him calm.”

The second victim had been shot multiple times in the leg, so Flores applied direct pressure to a thigh wound. He accompanied the victim into an examination room and helped maneuver him onto the examination table.

“I helped the nurses identify a gunshot wound which entered and exited the victim’s thigh, and another gunshot wound to his lower leg,” Flores said, “and bleeding from the victim’s hip and shoulder areas, which indicated additional potential wounds. At this point, a nurse noticed I was not part of the medical staff and asked who I was.”

When Flores explained who he was and why he was there, the nurse directed him to return to the waiting room.

Flores received the Army Commendation Medal for his selfless and humanitarian actions that night during the class graduation ceremony July 13.