Marine helps save couple after hippo attack

“I was just in the right place at the right time,” he said. “I’m no hero. Any Marine would have done the same thing.”

Marine helps save couple after hippo attack
MarineCorpsTimes.com
By Staff writer
Corporal: ‘Any Marine would have done the same thing’
By James K. Sanborn - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Apr 11, 2010 8:35:24 EDT

Hippopotamus attacks aren’t covered during standard Marine training, but that didn’t stop one corporal from rushing to the aid of a married couple while on safari in Zimbabwe after their inflatable canoe was flipped and the husband mauled.

Cpl. Justin Trinidad, 24, a Marine security guard at the U.S. embassy in Zimbabwe, was with his girlfriend, Kaylynn Hankey, when the hippo attacked their tour group on the Zambezi River in mid-March. About 30 minutes into the trip, the group — which included four canoes — asked for a break. As they headed for shore, tour guides spotted the hippo and yelled for the canoes to move away, but Javier and Patricia Franco didn’t hear the warning.

“I look back and all I see is Mr. and Mrs. Franco thrown up in the air a few meters,” Trinidad told Marine Corps Times in a telephone interview from Africa.

Patricia Franco was thrown clear of the hippo, but her husband came down almost on top of it. That’s when the animal chomped down on his leg, nearly severing his foot, Trinidad said.