Okinawa Marine recognized for saving restaurant worker’s life

A Marine corporal stationed at Camp Foster in Okinawa, Japan, was recently honored for saving a Japanese restaurant worker’s life this past spring.

Marine Cpl. Dominick Bonner of Parkville, Maryland, received the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal on June 8, Stars and Stripes first reported.

In April, Bonner had been out to breakfast at an off-base eatery, celebrating his wife’s birthday, when the Marine was told an employee needed medical attention.

The restaurant employee was on the ground in the kitchen area, motionless and without a pulse, a Marine Corps statement said. Bonner quickly began chest compressions after relieving the employee’s fatigued co-workers.

“After 10 minutes of performing the lifesaving aid, paramedics were able to take the man to a nearby hospital,” the Marine Corps said.

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Bonner, a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense specialist with the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, said, “I did what any Marine would have done.”

“It’s all about looking out for our fellow brothers and sisters of mankind. He needed help, and there was no way I was going to stand back and watch him die,” Bonner said in the statement.

The Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal is awarded to any person who distinguishes him or herself by “heroic or meritorious achievement or service,” according to the Marine Corps.

“Cpl. Bonner is the kind of Marine you want by your side at all times,” Gunnery Sgt. Joshua Malchow, the chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense operations coordinator of 1st MAW, said in the press release.

Malchow read the award, stating Bonner’s collected demeanor, leadership and decisive actions at the moment of crisis enabled the best on-scene to care possible prior to the arrival of medical services.

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