FORT STEWART, Ga. () — Six soldiers who ran towards chaos and gunfire during the mass shooting on Fort Stewart Wednesday were each honored with a Meritorious Service Medal.

Secretary of the Army, Hon. Dan Driscoll, visited Fort Stewart Thursday morning for the ceremony. The soldiers’ actions involved both neutralizing the threat and providing life-saving medical care to multiple casualties.

Below are the names of the soldiers honored:

• Master Sgt. Justin Thomas
• 1st Sgt. Joshua Arnold
• Staff Sgt. Melissa Taylor
• Staff Sgt, Robert Pacheco
• Sgt. Eve Rodarte
• Sgt. Aaron Turner

“It will be a little bit before this moment hits you, and that’s ok”, Secretary Driscoll told the soldiers. “We are grateful for you and we will stand by all of you as your colleagues recover and return to the unit.”

Sergeant Quornelius Radford, 28, is accused of shooting five fellow soldiers with a personal handgun on base. The swift actions of the honored soldiers likely prevented further injuries.

“One of the things that I can say unequivocally is that the fast action of these soldiers under stress, under trauma and under fire absolutely saved lives from being lost,” Secretary Driscoll said. “They were unarmed and ran at and tackled an armed person who they knew was actively shooting their buddies, their colleagues, their fellow soldiers.”

Sgt. Turner was the first soldier to jump on top of Sgt. Radford, according to officials. Turner told News 3 he tried to deescalate the situation once Radford was down.

“I had no feelings at that point… It was just understanding what’s the reason. Why are you trying to do this? Basically, why did it have to end up going down like this? I’ve already lost teammates during my career, and the fact that I just lost my mom recently, I’m not trying to go through the fact of losing him or possibly any other soldiers,” Sgt. Turner said.

The other soldiers immediately started taking care of the casualties, using their training they had developed over years and years. Lt. Col. Mike Sanford, battalion commander, said he’s never been prouder.

“We all take an oath, foreign or domestic, to support the constitution. I was very grateful that we have incredible soldiers to do what they do. They did it without even thinking. It was just second nature,” Lt. Col. Sanford said.