Rather than get out of harm’s way, the Iraq veteran stole a truck and transported dozens of injured to the hospital, CBS news reports.

“The shots got louder and louder, closer to us and saw people getting hit, it was like we could be hit at any second,” Winston said in a CBS video. “Once we got to the fence, I helped throw a bunch of people over and got myself over.”

“It was a mini war zone, but we couldn’t fight back.”

“I saw a field with a bunch of white trucks,” he said. “I tested my luck to see if any of them had keys in it, first one we tried opening had keys sitting right there. I started looking for people to take to the hospital. There was just too many and it was overwhelming how much blood was everywhere.”

After transporting the first truckload of victims to the hospital, Winston went back for more. He estimates he transported between 20 and 30 people to the hospital.

“I think a lot of my training in the military helped me in the situation,” he told CBS. “We needed to get them out of there regardless of our safety.”

Winston enlisted in the Marine Corps at 17 and deployed twice to Iraq. He was honorably discharged in 2011. Winston returned the keys to the truck owner Monday night, according to CBS.

Army veteran Rob Ledbetter was also present during the Las Vegas massacre.

Ledbetter’s brother was shot and injured as bullets rained down, The Associated Press reported. After finding cover in a VIP area, the former Army sniper who served in Iraq immediately rushed to tend to the wounded.

“The echo, it sounded like it was coming from everywhere and you didn’t know which way to run,” Ledbetter told the AP.

Ledbetter fashioned a makeshift tourniquet on a teenage girl with a flannel shirt, compressed the shoulder wound of another victim, and aided another man who had a bullet go through his leg.

“I’m saving people, or trying to do my best. But it got to the point, I saw people all over, laying where we used to be standing … just laying there and nobody getting to them and I couldn’t get out there,” he told the AP. “The shots just kept coming in and bouncing. I would have been in harm’s way.”

Rats rotting on a reservoir gate, a dead frog clinging to a ladder and a rodent carcass floating in treated water were found by inspectors during a June visit to the Marine Corps base.

Despite the nauseating discovery, Camp Pendleton officials say the water — consumed by some 55,000 Marines and their families — is safe, and that there is no need to boil water or take other precautions, according to a memo circulated by the base’s leadership.

“Simply put, the water is and has been safe to drink,” base spokesman Carl Redding told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Camp Pendleton is committed to providing safe and compliant drinking water. This is a duty and responsibility that we take very seriously.”

State and federal investigators, however, found “significant deficiencies” in the systems comprising the base’s water treatment program. According to the Environmental Protection Agency report, Camp Pendleton “lacked adequate supervision and qualified operators for treatment and distribution.”

After the base failed the June inspections, the “USMC removed the animal remains and cleaned, refilled, and tested the reservoirs for total coliform and chlorine.” Additional testing to ensure the water is safe to drink will be conducted, according to the EPA release.

On Sept. 28, the Marine Corps and the EPA entered into a consent decree, forcing the base to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act. Under the decree, the Marine Corps has 180 days to shut down, inspect, clean and sample all Camp Pendleton reservoirs.

“Public water systems must meet all state and federal requirements to provide safe drinking water to their customers,” said Alexis Strauss, EPA’s Acting Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “Our priority is to ensure the base achieves compliance promptly, to serve those who live and work at Camp Pendleton.”

Raised in a devout Catholic family, the young sailor was drawn to a higher calling, so after completing his first enlistment, Dorwart enrolled in the University of Notre Dame, where he completed his Master of Divinity degree. And in 1980, Dorwart was ordained as a Roman Catholic Priest.

In 1985, Dorwart returned to the sea, accepting a commission in the Navy as a chaplain. Over the course of six years, he served with Marines in Okinawa, with sailors in Subic Bay and aboard the carrier Midway, an assignment that included a deployment during the first Gulf War.

The Catholic Congregation of Holy Cross called for him in 1991 to return to full-time duty with the church. Leaving active duty as a lieutenant commander, Dorwart ultimately had to resign his commission because his commitment to the church didn’t leave time for his reservist duties.

In 2008, Dorwart was working at the University of Portland, which had a student body of about 4,000. It was then he became inspired by the troop surge into Afghanistan, an increase that also totaled about 4,000.

“I said to myself and my colleagues, ’It’s like if you just uprooted this whole campus and sent it halfway around the world into battle,” he said. “It’s the same age group, 18 to 25.”

Dowart put on his uniform once more at the age of 57, although he did have to take a pay-cut, being moved down a grade to lieutenant.

At 62, he needed an age waiver to continue serving on active duty. The Navy agreed, as long as he was willing to deploy aboard the amphibious assault ship Makin Island.

“It was the great need for Catholic priests. There are only 45 of us in the whole Navy, Marines and Coast Guard,” Dorwart said of his reasons for staying.

Dorwart plans to return to his congregation in Notre Dame.

“You retire from the Navy,” the priest said, “but you don’t retire from the ministry.”

During his keynote address, Mattis cheekily answered a question about his reported nickname, “Mad Dog.”

“It was a slow news day I think and somebody made it up,” Mattis said, noting that even his troops laughed when they read the news.

“My call sign was ‘Chaos,’” Mattis continued to laughter and applause from the audience. “But I must confess how I got that name.

“It’s probably because, you know, the great Chinese classical warfare strategist, Sun Tzu. You copied him or something like that,” he continued. “I’d love to tell you it was for a dignified reason like that.”

When the call sign originated, the then-colonel was a regimental commander in Twentynine Palms where, according to Mattis, “there’s nothing to do but go blow up the desert.” As he was leaving his operations office, he noticed the word “Chaos” written on the operations officer’s whiteboard.

“I said, ‘What’s this about?’ I’m curious, you know. We all are. He says ‘oh you don’t need to know that,’” which only further piqued curiosity.

“Finally, he kinda said, ‘Well it means the colonel has an outstanding solution,’ and it was very much tongue in cheek, ladies and gentlemen. They didn’t consider all my solutions quite as outstanding as I enthusiastically promoted them,” said Mattis.

Mattis ended up adopting the moniker as his call sign.

“There was never a ‘Mad Dog’ in there,” he said, “other than some press person who needed a little bit of a fantasy life fulfilled I think.” 

Capt. Sonny Hernandez, an Air Force Reserve chaplain for the 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, ministers to thousands of men and women serving in the Air Force. He contends that Christians serving in the military “serve Satan” if they support other service member’s rights to practice their own faiths.

In a blog published on BarbWire.com, Hernandez wrote: “Counterfeit Christians in the armed forces will appeal to the Constitution, and not Christ, and they have no local church home — which means they have no accountability for their souls.

“Christian service members who openly profess and support the rights of Muslims, Buddhists, and all other anti-Christian worldviews to practice their religions — because the language in the Constitution permits — are grossly in error, and deceived,” he wrote.

Hernandez asserts that “Christian service members must share the Gospel with unbelievers so they can be saved, not support unbelievers to worship their false gods that will lead them to hell.”

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation said in a statement it’s received multiple complaints regarding Hernandez over the past few years and that they’ve filed complaints with the DoD regarding his conduct.

The foundation said Hernandez’s article “blatantly and indisputably advocates the subordinating of the U.S. Constitution to his personal Christian ideology and violated his oath of office as a commissioned officer.”

In a blog for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, author Don Byrd writes that the idea that only counterfeit Christians wou whld support the rights of all Americans to practice their faith is “outrageous.”

“Personal theological beliefs do not disqualify an individual from public service,” Byrd writes. “However, Hernandez’s post goes well beyond questions of theology. He encourages Christian service members to refuse support for the “rights of all Americans.”

”Denying the rights of non-Christians is an offense to American liberty,” Byrd writes. “But it also undermines the strength of the Christian faith by suggesting it is threatened by a truly free conscience. The success of a religion should not depend on the extent to which the rights of others are restricted.”

Smith was initially awarded the Silver Star for his actions on April 6, 2004, when his squad was urgently sent to help Marines under heavy enemy fire in Ramadi, Iraq. He was serving as a corporal at the time.

“All hell broke loose,” Smith told Marine Corps Times in 2006. “We took fire from every angle. [Rocket-propelled grenades] were flying in. I remember a group of insurgents about 50 feet away shooting heavy machine guns. It became a full-scale battle.”

When his platoon commander was hit, Smith assumed command and led his platoon to covered positions. He then ran through intense rifle and machine gun fire to get his wounded platoon commander to safety and organized a counterattack against the insurgent forces.

After the battle, Smith learned that his platoon commander had died while on a helicopter to Baghdad.

Smith received his upgraded award on Thursday. He is one of only 40 Marines to receive the Navy Cross since Sept. 11, 2001, a Marine Corps news release says.

“I am honored and humbled to receive the upgraded award of the Navy Cross,” Smith said on Thursday. “I understand that this places me in a category of Marines that I would have never imagined to be a part of. I firmly believe that I was an ordinary Marine placed in an extraordinary situation.”

Morell was a senior fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. 

Harvard announced Wednesday that Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst convicted for leaking classified documents, would be joining Harvard as a visiting fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and that she will speak on issues of LGBTQ identity in the military. 

“Senior leaders in our military have stated publicly that the leaks by Ms. Manning put the lives of U.S. soldiers at risk,” Morell wrote. “I have an obligation to my conscience — and I believe to the country — to stand up against any efforts to justify leaks of sensitive national security information.”

Morell made it clear in his resignation letter that he fully supports “Ms. Manning’s rights as a transgender American, including the right to serve our country in the US military,” according to the letter shared by CBS News.

However, he said “The Kennedy School’s decision will assist Ms. Manning in her long-standing effort to legitimize the criminal path that she took to prominence, an attempt that may encourage others to leak classified information as well.”

Manning will speak on issues of LGBTQ identity in the military, Institute of Politics Fellows co-chairs Emily Hall and Jason Ge wrote in an announcement posted Wednesday.

“We welcome the breadth of thought-provoking viewpoints on race, gender, politics and the media,” Bill Delahunt, IOP acting director, said in the announcement.

Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst, was convicted in 2013 for leaking a huge cache of classified and sensitive documents. She was sentenced to 35 years in prison after a military judge found her guilty of six Espionage Act violations and multiple other charges relating to the dissemination of more than 700,000 classified military and State Department documents to WikiLeaks.

Manning was acquitted on the most serious charge of aiding the enemy.

After President Barack Obama commuted her sentence before leaving office, Manning has worked to re-brand herself as an activist for queer and transgender rights. She also speaks on topics related to artificial intelligence through op-ed columns for The New York Times and The Guardian, according to Harvard’s website.

Harvard’s IOP also announced three other visiting fellows: former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, CNN political commentator Robby Mook and Kansas City Mayor Sylvester “Sly” James Jr.

Another 4,500 Guard members are in transit to hurricane-stricken areas. The latest to leave, more than 2,500 Wisconsin National Guard troops, began loading up into military trucks or aircraft, as they made their way to Florida.

Meanwhile, more than 300 service members temporarily based in Honduras are prepared to respond to the Hurricane Irma relief effort in the eastern Caribbean Sea, according to a U.S. Southern Command press release. Joint Task Force-Leeward Islands is poised to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to the island of Saint Martin. JTF-LI is equipped with several disaster relief capabilities, including command and control, humanitarian assessment, water production and helicopter transportation, according to the release.

The mobilization of JTF-LI is the latest disaster relief operation initiated by the Department of Defense, which is working in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Northern Command, and the U.S. Coast Guard to coordinate relief efforts.

In the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico approximately 4,600 service members are supporting disaster relief operations. Leadership from the 26th MEU is conducting reconnaissance to assess the damage. The Marines delivered more than 23 pallets of water, more than 18 pallets of food, as well as additional supplies and equipment. Marine Corps aircraft transported more than 150 British Royal Marines and FEMA leadership to the U.S. and British Virgin Islands to support relief operations.

Another 10,400 service members are supporting relief operations in Florida. The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln is positioned off Florida’s coast and the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima and the amphibious transport dock New York arrive today.

In addition to the relief efforts in Florida and VIPR, U.S. Southern Command coordinated the evacuation of nearly 2,000 persons over the past three days.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have suffered loss during this time,” said Marine Col. Michael Samarov, commander of JTF-LI. “We are honored to help in any way we can.”

North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test Sep. 3. The blast from the test triggered a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey. This led experts to estimate the explosion to be approximately 10 times more powerful than previous tests conducted by the country, according to Financial Times. 

Experts currently estimate the yield of the Sep. 3 bomb to be around 100 kilotons according to a report by The Washington Post. In comparison, “Fat Man” ― the nuclear bomb the U.S. dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945 ― was 21 kilotons. 

Despite the international condemnation, Pyongyang remains defiant. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said there are signs that the North is making preparations for the launch of another intercontinental ballistic missile, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Pentagon officials say they are looking at options in case the test is intended to demonstrate Pyongyang can accurately put a missile off the coast of the American territory of Guam. 

Commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet responds

Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said the United States will continue to send military assets to the Korean Peninsula in combined deterrence to North Korea’s hostile actions and emphasizing that the South Koreans “do not face this aggressor alone,” according to Yonhap.

The Pacific Fleet is “seamlessly integrated” with both the South Korean and Japanese navies, Swift said, according to the report. 

Swift reaffirmed the security commitment of the U.S. Navy to the region in the face of North Korea’s provocations. He also expressed confidence in the strength of the forces ― which included about 200 ships and submarines, 1,180 aircraft, and over 140,000 sailors ― under his command. 

“Let our potential adversaries take pause and note that the only naval force more powerful than the U.S. Pacific Fleet is the entirety of the United States Navy,” Swift said.

The Pacific Fleet is responsible for approximately 60 percent of U.S. Navy assets amid the Navy’s “3rd Fleet Forward” initiative. This initiative shifts assets from the San Diego-based 3rd Fleet into the western Pacific in support of the Navy’s 7th Fleet, based in Japan.  

The initiative ― first announced by Swift in 2015 ― was motivated by the threat from North Korea, Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, commander of the 3rd Fleet, said at the WEST 2017 conference in February. 

“If there’s a desire to have another carrier and there’s a desire to have more ships, more submarines, we have the capability and capacity to support that direction,” she said.

“We will continue to deploy carrier strike groups, expeditionary strike groups, AEGIS ships, the world’s most capable submarine force and advanced aircraft like the F-35, P-8 and MH-60R to be prepared to respond decisively when called,” Swift said while speaking at the International Seapower Symposium. “Today, our platforms have longer reach, are more interconnected and possess greater lethality than what has ever been fielded before.”

Last stab at diplomacy

The United States is examining multiple avenues of resolving the tension with North Korea. The U.S. is pressuring China and the other members of the United Nations Security Council to cut off all fuel to the isolated nation. Senior Trump administration officials described this as the “last best chance” to resolving the crisis with sanctions rather than military action, according to The New York Times. 

The push to cut off North Korea’s fuel is likely to be met with resistance. Nearly all of North Korea’s imported energy supplies come from China, according to the report. But China fears the collapse of the North Korean regime if they were to cut off energy supplies, thus allowing South Korea to annex the North and leaving a U.S. ally on China’s border. 

The American ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, expressed the need to exhaust all diplomatic means. 

“We have kicked the can down the road long enough,” Haley told the council in an emergency meeting on Sep. 4. “There is no more road left.”