A little bit of time

I wrote that last blog post about 24 hours after everything had happened, and I feel like I should finish some of the story and update on what has happened with Cara, Marie, and Shandi.

For starters, I feel like I should explain the comment I made at the beginning of the last blog when I said I felt like there was something bigger at hand than just us that night. I never fully explained why I felt that way. After the crash (it was a black hawk), I kept thinking 'I can't believe I wasn't there...I should have been there with my battle buddies.' It only took one conversation with Cara to realize why I was not there and they were.

Cara told me that she didn't want to be around the other medics who eventually showed up on the scene, and she really didn't want to be around the second medic who showed up (i will call her Sgt. M) because she didn't want Sgt. M to think this was some sort of bonding experience between the two of them. Cara didn't really like Sgt. M all that much prior to this experience, and she doesn't want to Sgt. M to think they are best friends now or really close now because of what they went through together. She told my NCOIC (the person who asked me to come home early) the next day that when she was done talking to the Chaplin that night all she wanted was for me to be home, because if she had to be around someone she wanted it to be me.

When I got home from work last night Marie came over and said that she had missed me all day, because she is sick and tired of being around people she doesn't want to be around. I don't think I have some sort of amazing ability to make people feel at ease, but my battle buddies needed me to not be at that crash site because when they talk to me they know that I don't see the same images, hear the same things, or smell the same things that they did. I have no opinion of what did or did not happen out there. They can talk to me and I have no opinion or thoughts of my own about the situation. All I can do is listen to them.

The reason they were around for the crash is because they are the type of soldier's that you want to try and save your life. Honestly. Marie and Shandi are mechanics for the Army, but they are extremely self-less people and really do believe in the soldier's creed. I have heard that people from my unit made the comments "oh, well they weren't our guys that were in the crash so who cares." That is not an okay thought. They are soldier's...so you do not leave them. I don't care what unit they are in. The soldier's creed always applies. Marie and Shandi are the type of soldier's that don't need to be reminded of what the soldier's creed is because they live it naturally. I am sure you guys want to know what the soldier's creed is, so I will save you a google search:

I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.

Everyone knows the most important line is the last one. The other three are there to make us feel all hooah hooah and crap. But the last line is one to live by. The Army is so serious about it that after the whole Black Hawk Down (yes, the movie) incident happened they made in mandatory that every helicopter go out in pairs, so that hopefully something like Black Hawk Down will never happen again.

You may be wondering what happened to the other chopper then. One crashes here, so where is the other one? It landed safely at a base close by. It turned around and went back when they realized the weather had turned bad, and the other one went on to try and land here. I don't know if that was okay or what. But that is what happened.

So back to my original train of thought. Marie and Shandi would never leave a fallen comrade. Doesn't matter if they are part of this unit or not. As for Cara. She was there because she is a medic who knows her stuff. This was evident before any of this happened. This situation only made it apparent to everyone. She told me that she didn't really think much out there... that everything was a huge blur and she just remembers reacting. That means she was trained properly. The three of them were the right ones to be the first ones on the scene.

The Air Force has said great things about everything that they did out there. The Air Force is responsible for providing the emergency medical personnel when stuff like this happens, and they said they did everything right. There were about 15 people from my unit that were involved out there. I think. There might have been more. I don't know how many people it takes to roll a Black Hawk off of a person, but however many people that is, that is how many people were out there. That man survived by the way.

Marie said she thought he died because they rolled the chopper off of him and she heard him scream and then when they rolled it the second time (the first time was not far enough to pull him out) they didn't hear anything. So, she thought he had bleed out at that point. He didn't. He survived.

Well I have to go now. Work is almost over. I am hoping Cara is awake when I get home so we can watch Dawson's Creek. Mel sent me season 3 and I am going to make her watch it against her will. She will learn to love it...or at least learn to make fun of it with me.