Guard Soldier becomes guardian angel

By Douglas Mallary, NMNG Public Affairs

BELEN, N.M. – Staff Sgt. Antonio Bieniek happened to be in the right place at the right time early in the morning of Jan. 26.

Raymond Gonzales was driving near Belen at approximately 6 a.m. that day with his wife Cathy and daughter Rosella. A winter storm had made the roads icy and slick, causing Gonzales’s truck to roll over.

“No sooner than we rolled over that truck, he (Bieniek) was right there knocking on the window, asking if we needed help,” Raymond said. “God sent him.”

Cathy said that Bieniek first tried to get Raymond out of the truck, but found that his seatbelt had jammed.

“He said he’d be right back and he returned in an instant with something to cut the seatbelt,” she said. “He got my husband out, and then he got me out. He couldn’t get my daughter out because she was stuck in the backseat.”

Police quickly arrived at the scene and smashed a window to free Rosella.

“Antonio was right there. He comforted us and stayed there until help arrived. He stayed there to make sure we were okay,” Cathy said.

“He even stayed with the truck until it was towed,” Raymond said.

“We’re bruised and sore,” Cathy said. “We’re starting therapy. We’re getting better.”

Bieniek is an Active Guard Reserve Training NCO with the 919th Military Police Company in Belen.

Cathy, it turns out, is from a Guard family. He father Ruperto and her brother Fernando both retired from the New Mexico National Guard after spending their careers in the maintenance field.

By coincidence or fate, it was another Guard member—Bieniek—who came to the rescue Jan. 26.

“He was like a guardian angel,” said Cathy.