US veteran dubbed highway ‘angel’ for using combat first aid to save crash survivor

Marine veteran James Brown rescued a driver with a piece of metal lodged in his leg

A US military veteran and trucker recently used his battlefield medical training to save the life of a fellow truck driver whose leg was impaled by a piece of metal after a crash, earning him official recognition as an “angel” of the nation’s highways.

As the organization honoring him tells it, James Brown was driving for Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Melton Truck Lines through torrential rain – as well as low visibility – on 22 May when he saw another trucker lose control, leave the roadway and overturn about 40 miles east of Little Rock, Arkansas.