A 25th Infantry Division soldier has been recognized for his efforts in rescuing a 9-year-old girl who struggled in the ocean at Pokai Bay on Father’s Day.

Sgt. Maj. Gerardo Gonzalez, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade support operations sergeant, was awarded the Army Commendation Medal on Aug. 14 for helping to save the life of Martina Eram on June 15, an Army spokesman said.

Gonzalez went to the aid of a man who was holding a young girl and struggling to keep her above water, according to an Army news release.

Gonzalez performed lifesaving procedures while moving toward the shore with the girl. Once he arrived on the beach, he continued to perform lifesaving procedures until the girl expelled the water in her lungs and started to breathe weakly on her own.

Gonzalez continued to monitor the girl and perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation until lifeguards arrived to take over and take the girl to an ambulance, the Army statement said.

"It was just training," said Gonzales. "There was nothing else that was coming to my mind and I just kept going until the lifeguards were there."

Maj. William Hanna, 209th Aviation Support Battalion executive officer, said, "Sgt. Maj. Gonzalez is getting this award because he really went above and beyond performing his duty as a soldier on and off duty."

Martina Eram and her sister, Gloria Eram, 11, a sixth-grader at Wahiawa Elementary School, both got into trouble in the water, but the younger girl was discovered first.

Emergency Medical Services officials said they were unaware that a second child was missing in the ocean until she was found submerged in shallow water a half-hour later, just before noon. She was taken in extremely critical condition to the hospital, where she died.

A relative said the two girls might have been walking on a rock jetty to see how far they could get out into the bay. Somehow they ended up in the water unseen, the relative said.