2 Nevada Guard members recognized for saving Ariz. man’s life

Ronaldo De la Ree was lucky two Nevada National Guard soldiers decided to go fishing at a wetlands park near Tucson, Arizona, the night he nearly died in a fiery car crash.

On Monday, De la Ree hugged and thanked the soldiers — Sgt. Kyle Stephens and Spc. Michael Knight — for their lifesaving efforts June 1 when they saw a flash of light by the road where they were casting for catfish and hustled to find him unconscious and injured inside his Ford Taurus.

“As Knight phoned dispatch, Stephens moved De la Ree from the car as flames grew and power lines sagged,” according to a news release about Nevada Army Guard commander Brig. Gen. Michael Hanifan’s visit Monday to the Western Army Aviation Training Site, 30 miles northwest of Tucson.

The two Lakota flight mechanics with the Guard’s Las Vegas-based B Company, 3rd Battalion, 140th Aviation Regiment, returned for border patrol duty at the training site where De la Ree met them and Hanifan recognized their good deeds.

According to the news release, De la Ree, 36, said he was drunk and does not remember the moments leading up to the accident.

“My shoulder is my main injury now,” he said. “I could barely lift one pound two or three months ago.”

He received a three-year probation for driving under the influence and is holding a job at a local restaurant, where he treated the soldiers to lunch.

Stephens and Knight said they were just doing the right thing when they rescued De la Ree from the burning car.

It was “nothing special,” Stephens said. “I’m just surprised this all happened. Really, we were just fishing. We didn’t expect all this.”

Stephens, 25, and Knight, 23, joined the Nevada Army National Guard after graduating from North Valleys High School in Reno.

Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Find @KeithRogers2 on Twitter.