Cadet Commander Abigail Roby, a member of the Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps at Daviess County High School, was awarded the Cadet Meritorious Achievement Ribbon during a special surprise ceremony Tuesday morning in the DCHS Auxiliary Gymnasium.
The award, which was submitted by Lieutenant Commander Stephen M. White, USN (Retired), senior Naval Science instructor at DCHS, was presented to Roby for her actions in responding to a medical emergency on March 19.
The commendation read as follows:
“Cadet Commander Abigail Roby demonstrated outstanding leadership skills, patience and intestinal fortitude with the Daviess County High School NJROTC program on March 19, 2019.
While participating in her senior class pictures in a local park, she and a photographer witnessed an elderly man’s wheelchair roll off the sidewalk curb, causing the man to fall face first onto the concrete pinning the man under his wheelchair.
Seeing this, Cadet Roby kicked off her shoes and ran to the man’s aid. Upon reaching the man, she began to lift the wheelchair off the man and rolled him to his side so he could breathe. Seeing that the man’s face was bleeding, she immediately started first aid, while she directed the photographer to call 911 – all the while holding the bleeding man’s face in her lap, talking to him to keep him conscious.
Upon arrival of the ambulance, she stayed with the man and relayed to the EMTs what she had seen and what first aid she had administered. It was Cadet Roby’s courage and actions that averted further potentially injury to the elderly gentleman.
Her example of meritorious achievement has set a standard that few cadets will ever be able to emulate, and are in keeping with the finest traditions of Daviess County High School, the NJROTC Unit and the United States Navy.”
Roby, a senior at Daviess County High School, plans to attend Murray State University this fall with plans to pursue a career in the medical field.
