I cant go into great detail but a few Sundays ago I was doing my weekly BBQ for the Company and my platoon sergeant came out and told me we had a medevac request and it was urgent. I didn't have any details at the time but I knew it was either life, limb, or eyesight. That means a bird gets immediately spun up and the ER gets ready to receive the patient. So I go running into the TOC with BBQ grease all over me and smelling strongly of smoke. The initial diagnosis was a seizure, okay not to bad. We have already had a few of those so we were prepared. However once talking to the medic on the ground we found it was much more serious than that. In a nut shell the Soldier had gone into cardiac arrest while doing his daily exercise. Because we are short on medics there was no medic on the base at the time but was only 5 mins away so they did an immediate U turn and headed back. Now you have to remember this all happened in about a 15-20min period. The Soldier stopped breathing numerous times and my medic on ground was constantly starting and stopping CPR. They tried to stabilize the Soldier for the flight but were just unable to. So they continued CPR all the way to the hospital. Unfortunately it was not enough and we lost him.
I have such mixed feelings over this lose. I have lost brothers before. Seen them die in my arms, but in combat situations. You expect that, you can prepare yourself, somewhat for that. But just doing some PT?! Unbelievable! I wish it stopped there but we have had other loses in sister units throughout the battle space the past few weeks also. 4th Brigade, 1 Cav. has taken some hits these last few weeks. Please keep there families in your prayers. Remember the next time you get to go shopping with your family, or watch your kids play at a park, or just sitting around enjoying a good meal with family and friends there are those that dont get to do that. They made a choice to sacrifice the greatest gift of all so we could enjoy the freedoms we take for granted daily.
-No greater gift is this than a man lay down his life for a friend-
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