VMI swimmer Hayden Rose has been recognized for his heroism in aiding a civilian military partner who fell and hit her head on concrete during a training exercise, administering early medical treatment until medical professionals arrived.
From Colonel Adrian T. Bogart III, the Commonadant of the Virginia Military Institute Corps of Cadets:
The report comes from COL Rusty McGuire ’96 who commands the 91st Cyber Brigade. On 10 July, at 0855 hours, following the in-brief at Virginia’s Cybersecurity Exercise “Cyber Fortress”, one of the civilian partners suddenly collapsed. VMI Cadet Hayden Rose ’26 observed the woman fall and hit her head on the concrete. Cadet Rose quickly administered aid and noticed she was not breathing. Another soldier and four marines arrived at the scene, and they all performed lifesaving procedures until the emergency personnel arrived. In all over 30 minutes of CPR was performed before she was transported to the hospital where she is in stable condition. Her family is incredibly thankful and credit the group for saving their loved one. Cadet Rose recently completed EMT training at VMI.
Cyber Fortress is a cyber security exercise designed to practice and validate responses to cyber warfare in the state of Virginia. Virginia National Guard Soldiers and Airmen, Virginia governmental departments, and private sector partners all participate in the drills based at Camp Pendleton.
The woman who Rose aided was a civilian employee of a “major telecommunications company” who was participating in the exercise.
After a morning briefing, a group of people participating in the exercises were walking from one building to a next. Rose noticed the woman looking confused, when suddenly he heard a Marine yelling for help.
Rose saw the woman face down on the ground bleeding and reacted.
“I knew my training, and knew it was something I could help with. I assessed her, and found that she wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse. I knew right away we had to start CPR. None of the other service members helping were certified in CPR, so part of my job was instructing them in proper CPR technique. We all took turns performing CPR, and I kept reassessing her to make sure we were doing everything we could to save her life until the ambulance arrived,” Rose recalled.
He says he was unsure about how long it took for the ambulance to arrive, but that others estimated that the group performed CPR for 20 minutes before an ambulance transported her to the hospital.
After completing his exercises at Camp Pendleton, Rose will take the National Registry EMT (NREMT) test that provides him with a two-year certification, and returns to VMI mid-August for cadre week to assume his EMT duties.
Rose was one of 21 VMI students who attended an EMT class that the school held in June, where students went through five weeks (about 150 hours) of training to become an EMT.
Rose, who just completed his freshman year at VMI, is majoring in Computer Science and participates in undergraduate research programs in the field.
In the pool, Rose was part of VMI’s non-scoring roster at the America East Championships, finishing his first year of college swimming with a 1:05.55 in the 100 yard breaststroke and 2:28.32 in the 200 yard breaststroke, plus a 23.97 in the 50 free.
He also plays trombone in the Band Company.
Rose comes from Cedarburg, Wisconsin, where as a senior at Cedarburg High School, he finished 13th at the WIAA Boys’ Division 2 High School State Championship meet.
VMI, located in Lexington, Virginia, is the United States’ oldest public senior military college.
