Officer Who Rescued 2 ‘Just Doing My Thing’

Shortly after Milt Gordon helped pull two injured men to safety Friday morning after their car overturned on Ardath Road near California 52, he found himself facing television cameras, radio microphones and the pens and notebooks of a gaggle of newspaper reporters.

Gordon, in their view, is a hero.

But to the 48-year-old federal security officer assigned to the Veterans Administration Hospital, “I was just doing my thing.”

“I’m sure any other police officer or firefighter under the same conditions would have reacted the same way,” said the cool, relaxed Gordon, dressed in a tan Western shirt and blue jeans while sipping a brew in a local pub.

Recalling the incident, he said he had completed a midnight shift at the hospital and was headed toward Mission Bay Friday morning when he saw the accident play out in front of him.

At 8:15 a.m., Gordon exited Interstate 5 south, going east on an overpass ramp to California 52, when he saw a red sports car traveling fast.

Gordon was only about 50 feet behind the 1966 Triumph when it hit a traffic island at the top of the on-ramp where Ardath Road and California 52 meld.

The car “became airborne and catapulted one guy to the freeway,” he said. “It rolled over in mid-air and hit a retaining wall, turned over on its top and skidded across the freeway.”

Gordon pulled his car to a stop, jumped out and rushed to aid Petty Officer 3rd Class Robert Shawn Kaupish 23, of Great Falls, Va., who was thrown from the car. “I didn’t know what his injuries were, but I tried to stop the bleeding,” he said.

“It wasn’t until the car started to burn that my attention was directed to the second person,” Gordon said. “It was obvious he was in jeopardy. I dragged him a safe distance from the car and left him.”

During the pandemonium, Gordon said, he dispatched a passer-by to call police and an ambulance for the injured. A short time later, doctors arrived and cared for the men, he said.

The driver of the car, Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Moseley, 26, of San Diego, and Kaupish were listed in serious condition at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla Friday night. Moseley sustained chest injuries and cuts to his face and upper body, a hospital official said. Kaupish sustained head and back injuries. Both men were assigned to the Navy’s Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center, hospital officials said.

Gordon said there were several firefighters and policemen at the scene who did a “hell of a job” getting the injured to safety. Gordon said public service officers must remain cucumber-cool to prepare themselves for such stressful situations.

“It was after it was over that my adrenalin started pumping,” he said. “When it’s over, then you can afford the luxury to reflect.”

Gordon worked as a police officer for more than three years in Milwaukee before joining the hospital security staff in 1982. He summed up his nonchalant reaction to all the attention he was receiving with a simple statement: “I like being a police officer. You gotta enjoy what you are doing. Sometimes you don’t make the money you think you should, but it all balances out.”

Gordon’s wife, Linda, who works in the hospital canteen, said, “You always worry, because you never know what they are going to run into from one minute to the next.”

As the pub patrons focused their attention on the television set, showing a tape of Gordon explaining what happened at the accident scene, he took another sip of beer and said, “It’s my job. I can’t stress enough that any other police officer or firefighter would have functioned the same way. When it’s over, you go drink a six-pack.”