Army Sgt. 1st Class Corey Engard sits next to Colton Rogers at a crash scene in east-central Mississippi on Nov. 17, 2023. Engard applied a tourniquet to Rogers’ leg, which was severed from above the kneecap down as a result of the crash. (Corey Engard)

A Mississippi man shared a meal and lot of gratitude recently with the Army recruiter who pulled him from his overturned truck and saved his life.

Sgt. 1st Class Corey Engard and Colton Rogers met at a steakhouse in Hattiesburg, Miss., on Friday to reflect on the bond forged between them since Nov. 17, when Engard stopped at the crash scene and encountered a badly bleeding Rogers.

“I saw that his leg was completely severed from above the left kneecap down,” recalled Engard, who was behind Rogers on a road in the east-central part of the state.

Engard, who is based in Meridian, Miss., used his belt and a ratchet strap as makeshift tourniquets to stop the bleeding.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Corey Engard visits Colton Rogers, 22, at Anderson Regional Medical Center in Meridian, Miss., on Nov. 18, 2023. (Corey Engard)

Army Sgt. 1st Class Corey Engard meets with Colton Rogers, 22, at a steakhouse, Jan. 19, 2024. The two have bonded in the wake of a crash in east-central Mississippi on Nov. 17, 2023. Engard saved the life of a badly bleeding Rogers. (Corey Engard)

The truck had veered off the road, hit a guardrail and went nearly vertical before falling on its side, said Ed Cutts, an eyewitness named in the police report on the crash.

“If there was no tourniquet or no one there who knew how to put it on, (Rogers) may have died or bled to death,” Cutts said in a phone interview.

Rogers lost much of his left leg and broke his tibia, an Army statement at the time said. He is set to receive a prosthetic leg soon and hopes to walk again in the next nine months, Engard said.

The peril that Rogers, 22, faced was immediately apparent to him as he lay trapped in a mangled wreck.

“I looked down, and I seen blood running between my legs, and I knew I was in bad shape,” Rogers said.

Since then, the two have tried to keep in touch, and the experience has brought the former strangers together.

“It’s become a bond,” Rogers said. “I think everything played out as perfectly as it could have.”