11/03/2025
When 37-year-old Caleb Carpenter blacked out behind the wheel on Highway 33, his car shot off the road and crashed 200 feet into the woods, bursting into flames.
Behind him was Jim Potter, a 75-year-old Vietnam veteran from Ashville, Alabama, who refused to keep driving.
“I just reacted,” Potter said quietly.
He pulled down a nearby driveway, called 911, and sprinted toward the burning car.
Inside, Caleb was unconscious and trapped under the steering wheel.
“I’ve seen worse in Vietnam,” Potter recalled, “but I knew I had to get him out.”
Fighting heat and smoke, he freed Caleb’s legs and dragged him to safety just as the fire spread.
When rescuers arrived, both men were exhausted—but alive. Caleb was airlifted to the hospital with severe spinal, knee, and ankle injuries. He now walks with a walker and wheelchair, slowly healing.
Potter calls himself “just a man who did what needed to be done.”
He doesn’t want recognition. “Make your story about Caleb,” he told the reporter.
But everyone else knows the truth—heroes rarely see themselves that way.
Jim Potter’s selfless act reminds us that courage doesn’t fade with age—it deepens.
And somewhere in Alabama, two men who were strangers that morning now share a bond born of bravery, gratitude, and a second chance at life.
https://news478media.com/jim-potter-the-75-year-old-veteran-with-a-big-heart-who-saved-caleb-carpenter-s-trongdat/
