Ricardo Delano Whitehead, third from left, was honored by Live Oak officials and the Sutter County Sheriff's Office at Wednesday's City Council meeting for intervening in an attack last month. (Courtesy Sutter County Sheriff's Office)
Ricardo Delano Whitehead isn't your average 69-year-old. Despite being just a few weeks shy of 70, the U.S. Army veteran still practices martial arts. In his younger years, he even taught it to an Army battalion at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
On Feb. 13, Whitehead happened upon a man he saw tackle a woman before repeatedly punching her in the doorway of a Live Oak, California business. Whitehead yelled at the suspect to leave the woman alone, at which point the other man turned his attention on the veteran.
No matter how much time you spend in the U.S. armed forces, the impulse to serve never fully goes away. Service members often find new ways to serve their communities after they separate, from volunteer work to running for office, but many embody the spirit of service when the most extreme circumstances call them to action. Often, those who answer the call aren’t just good Samaritans — they’re total badasses who run toward danger and never look back.
Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Zac Edwards had just gotten married last month on an Alabama coastal beach when a woman came up and said that someone was in the water being carried away by a rip current and drowning.
