95th Training Division Drill Sergeant Credited with Two Life-Saving Rescues Five Years Apart

Staff Sgt. Jesse Cotter’s actions outside the training environment show the experience, judgment and sense of responsibility that 95th Training Division noncommissioned officers bring to developing soldiers.

**TAHLEQUAH, Okla. —**When Staff Sgt. Jesse Cotter saw a woman struggling to escape an overturned truck as smoke filled the cab, he got out of his vehicle and ran toward her.

It was the second time in five years the 95th Training Division drill sergeant had helped save a stranger’s life.

Cotter, a Civil Affairs specialist assigned to Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 378th Regiment, 1st Brigade, has served in the Army Reserve for 11 years. His story reflects the experience the division’s soldiers carry as they balance military responsibilities with the communities where they live and work.

Two Rescues, Five Years Apart

On Nov. 29, 2025, Cotter and his wife, Sgt. Emily Cotter, were driving home near Tahlequah, when Emily spotted a truck that had just crashed on state Highway 51.

Cotter saw someone inside struggling to push open the damaged door.

“I didn’t even think,” he said. “I just got out of the truck, and I ran towards the vehicle.”

By the time he reached the truck, smoke filled the cab and fire burned beneath the hood. Cotter forced open the damaged door and pulled 18-year-old Ebonie Poppino from the vehicle.

Poppino remembered trying to open the door, then realizing someone had come to help.

“I remember him picking me up and taking me to the hospital,” she said.

Once outside, Cotter asked if anyone else was in the truck. Poppino said she was in shock and remembered mentioning her son, though she could not recall exactly what she said.

Cotter understood this to mean a child might still be inside and turned back toward the vehicle.

“I was just going to go right back in,” Cotter said. “It didn’t matter if it was dangerous for me. I’d lay my life down for someone else, especially a child.”

Poppino clarified that her son was elsewhere.

As Cotter moved her farther from the truck, she began losing her balance. He picked her up and carried her away. Behind them, the vehicle became fully engulfed.

“I could feel the heat of the truck as it engulfed right behind me,” Cotter said. “I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so glad I got her out of there already.’”

Cotter and his wife drove Poppino to Northeastern Health System in Tahlequah. Emily helped calm her during the drive as she tried to process what had happened.

Poppino later met with Cotter to thank him. She has called him her hero, a word she associates with his willingness to step into danger for someone he had never met.

“He was being really brave because that was definitely a very scary situation,” Poppino said. “He didn’t even really know me, but he still chose to sacrifice his life to help me.”

For Emily, her husband’s response was remarkable for another reason.

She had seen it before.

“I don’t know how you find yourself in these situations,” Cotter recalled his wife telling him. “But you did it again.”

Five years earlier, Cotter was kayaking on the Illinois River after flooding left the water high and murky. Near a section known as the S-curve, he noticed what appeared to be a hand briefly surface near downed trees.

He paddled toward it and reached into the water. Beneath the surface was a man whose legs had become pinned between submerged logs.

Cotter entered the water and went underneath to free him.

Then the current pushed Cotter against the logs too.

“I started to panic because I couldn’t get him loose,” Cotter recalled.

Underwater and struggling against the current, he forced himself to stop and regain control.

“I thought, ‘Okay, I have to calm down. I know what I’m here for. I’m going to get him out.’”

Cotter found where the man’s legs were trapped, freed him and brought him to shore. He then performed CPR until the man coughed up water.

The man, Dwight Catron, later contacted Cotter and told him he believed the rescue had given him a second chance at life.

The emergencies were separated by five years and unfolded under very different circumstances. Cotter sees a common thread in what helped him respond.

He does not point to one Army course or task. Instead, he credits years of military experience with helping him manage stress, think through changing situations and regain focus under pressure.

“It’s another ability to handle stress and to kind of just take a second and think about what you’re doing and refocus yourself,” Cotter said. “I think the Army helped me out a lot with that.”

Bringing Experience Back to the Formation

Cotter also brings those qualities into his role as a drill sergeant.

For the 95th Training Division, experienced noncommissioned officers are central to the mission of preparing soldiers for situations where they may have to assess what is happening and act with confidence. Cotter’s company commander, Capt. Jacob Saxton, said that responsibility begins with leadership.

“A drill sergeant is foremost a leader as an NCO and as the one entrusted with training initial entry personnel,” Saxton said. “A leader must know how to act and be able to act when required.”

Saxton said Cotter regularly seeks opportunities to challenge himself and improve as a soldier. The judgment Cotter showed during the rescue, he said, reflects qualities that also matter when leading and developing others.

That connection between service in uniform and service in the community is familiar across the Army Reserve. For Cotter, it goes beyond the moments that made headlines. He has volunteered with a nonprofit mentoring young people facing difficult circumstances and said helping others without expecting anything in return is part of how he understands selfless service.

Poppino experienced that sense of service from the other side. She knew Cotter first as the stranger who stopped when she needed help.

The experience changed the way she thinks about people willing to step forward for someone they do not know.

“There’s still good people out there willing to help you,” Poppino said.

Cotter has been recommended for the Soldier’s Medal for his actions during the November 2025 rescue. The recommendation is continuing through the awards process.

Cotter said the recognition is meaningful. For him, however, the most important outcome came before anyone considered an award.

“I could have lived my life knowing that I did it,” he said. “That’s the reward itself.”

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