Iraqi life saved by quick-reacting Soldiers Story and photos by Sgt. Kevin Stabinsky 2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div. PAO FOB KALSU – While Soldiers have shown great flexibility in their operations, one principal that remains unwavering, is helping care for the Iraqi people. On Jan. 7, this was evident when Soldiers, whose quick thinking and selfless service, helped saved the life of one Iraqi man. Soldiers of the 153rd Military Police Company, Delaware City, Del. National Guard, were on a mission to take a group of engineers from a civilian construction company to survey the site for a future Arab Jabour police station. The convoy had just pulled into the site area and began to secure it. The lead vehicle began to do a U-turn when a white pickup truck began speeding toward the convoy. Following proper rules of engagement, the gunner began to sound the siren on the humvee in an attempt to stop the vehicle. The driver stopped the truck, exited, and began frantically waving his arms. Staff Sgt. Bruce Ashby, the lead truck commander, despite not understanding the cries of the man, knew something was wrong based his facial expressions. “He had this frantic look on his face, was motioning his arms to indicate an explosion,” said Ashby, a native of Smyrna, Del. Determined to get a better understanding of the situation, he got out of the humvee and began to approach the truck with a second Soldier. The man, still making motions, began pointing to his leg and then to the back of the truck. Picking up their pace, the two Soldiers reached the vehicle, surrounded by two other men offering comfort, was a third man, occasionally grunting, but mainly shaking in pain. The man, a stocky, mustached, middle-aged Arab Jabour resident, was splattered in blood on his left side. His clothes bore tears from multiple shrapnel wounds, and his left leg, hanging from the back of the pick-up’s bed, was missing half, dripping blood, and needed immediate care. Ashby, a New Castle County, Del. police officer in his civilian life, is a first responder to many accidents and people in need of assistance, but this was the first time he had encountered an amputation, he said. Even with an unfamiliar situation, Ashby quickly reverted to his training. “When you come across a situation like that, you don’t have time to think. You just react,” he said. He quickly applied a tourniquet band from his aid packet on his flak vest, to the injured man, all while directing the other Soldier to get a medic and a stretcher. Ashby continued to assess the casualty while waiting for medics. “You just sit back, say a little prayer, hope that he makes it,” he said. Spc. Edward Graves arrived and could have been the answer to a prayer. As a combat medic, a background as a firefighter for 15 years and now working as a code enforcement officer in Dover, Del., he had a multitude of experience in treaty casualties. Even with his experience, the Harly Del. native knew at first glance his skills would not be enough. “We had to get him up the medical chain,” he said. The decision was made to evacuate the man to the nearest trauma center, Patrol Base Murray, a patrol base operated by Soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. As the vehicles prepared to escort the locals to the patrol base, Graves continued to check his airway and stop any major bleeding. Besides the amputation to his foot, the man’s left arm was severely cut above the elbow, requiring another tourniquet band. “Your training just comes back to you, especially your military training,” Graves said of his calmness despite the wails of the man’s brother and friend in the back of the truck. “It kind of becomes second nature; you mentally get rid of it (the distractions).” The MPs parted the crowd and began escorting the truck toward PB Murray. At the patrol base, medics were alerted to the incoming casualty and were prepared to meet the Guardsmen as they arrived. Seconds after pulling near the trauma center, the medics did a quick hand over, rushing the man, Mohammed Ali Abas, battalion care center. In the center, the medics prepared their equipment and began to monitor Abas’ vital signs, starting an intravenous line and cutting off his clothes to better assess the wounds. Outside the clinic, Abas’s brother Ehsan sat by the door, crying for his brother, his two friends trying to comfort him in his moment of need. Lt. Col Ken Adgie, 1-30th Inf. Reg. commander, whose battalion operates in the area, joined the group to add his own words of comfort and determine what exactly happened and what he could do to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. “Your brother is going to be okay,” he said, assuring Ehsan the medics were skilled and would do all they could for him. Lt. Col. Hee-Choon S. Lee, 1-30th Inf. Regt., battalion surgeon, a native of Larton, Va., had some concerns. Lee, who dressed Abas’ amputation and wounds, was more concerned with the low oxygen level. Abas’ oxygenation or percent of oxygen saturation in his blood was hovering around 80 percent. Normally, the number should be between 99 to 100 percent. Assessing his situation as very urgent, Lee made the decision to have the man transferred to the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. To stabilize the man for the trip, Lee hooked the man up to an oxygen mask and inserted a nasal trumpet. The trumpet, a rubbery plastic tube that is inserted in the nose beyond the tongue so the tongue doesn’t block the airway, helps get air into the lungs. Lee was also worried about a possible brain injury. “He was not talking to us, not responsive, but moaning with pain,” he said. “That tells me he may have had a brain concussion.” As the doctors worked inside, Adgie also went to work, trying to draw some picture of the day’s events. With the aid of a translator, Adgie learned that the man had struck an improvised explosive device around his house, approximately 200 meters away from the Palestine School and the house of Concerned Local Citizen leader, retired Iraqi Army Brig. Gen. Mustafa Kamel Hamad Shabib al’ Jabouri. Adgie, upon learning about the IED, said he was concerned, as there hasn’t been an IED strike in the area since August. Afraid that someone might be targeting the family, he decided to send an explosive ordnance disposal team to the site to conduct blast analysis and gather evidence. The team determined the IED was made of four 57 mm mortars planted in the man’s driveway. Although there were a lot of “what ifs” in the air, one specific was known – Abis’s fate was hanging in the balance. Loaded into a vehicle and attended by a medic, the Soldiers evacuated him to the 86th CSH, where a team of surgeons was waiting to operate. Although his life may not be the same with the loss of limbs, he was alive. The morning of Jan. 8, Abas was in stable condition recovering from the surgery at the intensive care unit in the hospital, said 1st Lt. Kristina Moffett, ICU charge officer, 86th CSH. “We probably saved a life,” said 1st Lt. Daniel DeFlaviis, a Del. state trooper and member of the 153rd MP Company, as Abas was taken from Murray to the hospital. The man was not a Concerned Local Citizen but his friend was, and it was friends like that, Iraqis who have stepped up to stop violence like this attack, that have garnered the Soldiers’ respect. “People like him, who have stood up in defense of their neighborhoods, are truly fighting along side us for their own homes and families, and that is something I seriously appreciate,” said Lee. “They are truly risking their lives in defense of their homes.”