Into the fire
With every new day brings new life experiences and new opportunities. One thing could unexpectedly happen that could change the course of the rest of your life. I have been through numerous situations that have changed my outlook on life, and one day in particular changed everything for me and my very perspective on life itself. I was deployed to the Helmand Province Afghanistan with a company of 120 Marines. The morning of June 30th 2010, I awoke in my sleeping bag after a restless night’s sleep with a horrible feeling of dread. After I came to my senses and gathered myself together then dressed into my fatigues, picked up my rifle and medical bag and staggered outside to the briefing area. My Marines and I were ready for our next mission and we waited for our Platoon Lieutenant to come out and brief us. When the LT had finished his report we went back to the tent to …show more content…
Rockets exploded all around us, bullets hit our truck and suddenly my radio operator called out to me and said “Doc we have a man down get out there we’ll give you covering fire, move.” Without thinking I grabbed my M16 and medical bag and ran out to the wounded man on the other side of the road lying in the ditch. It was a civilian who was caught in the crossfire. I looked down at him and saw he’d been shot. I applied bandages as best I could, picked him up and put him on my shoulders then carried him back to my truck. As the battle ensued around us, my friend Corporal Parks was firing his machine gun from the truck that was so loud it made my ears ring from fifty feet away. As lead from all calibers snapped and cracked around me I was able to get my patient back to a relatively safe place and began treating his wounds more thoroughly. I was able to stop the bleeding and bring him back to a stable state. He looked up at me and uttered a few words in his foreign language with a look of gratitude then stared off into the
With every new day brings new life experiences and new opportunities. One thing could unexpectedly happen that could change the course of the rest of your life. I have been through numerous situations that have changed my outlook on life, and one day in particular changed everything for me and my very perspective on life itself. I was deployed to the Helmand Province Afghanistan with a company of 120 Marines. The morning of June 30th 2010, I awoke in my sleeping bag after a restless night’s sleep with a horrible feeling of dread. After I came to my senses and gathered myself together then dressed into my fatigues, picked up my rifle and medical bag and staggered outside to the briefing area. My Marines and I were ready for our next mission and we waited for our Platoon Lieutenant to come out and brief us. When the LT had finished his report we went back to the tent to …show more content…
Rockets exploded all around us, bullets hit our truck and suddenly my radio operator called out to me and said “Doc we have a man down get out there we’ll give you covering fire, move.” Without thinking I grabbed my M16 and medical bag and ran out to the wounded man on the other side of the road lying in the ditch. It was a civilian who was caught in the crossfire. I looked down at him and saw he’d been shot. I applied bandages as best I could, picked him up and put him on my shoulders then carried him back to my truck. As the battle ensued around us, my friend Corporal Parks was firing his machine gun from the truck that was so loud it made my ears ring from fifty feet away. As lead from all calibers snapped and cracked around me I was able to get my patient back to a relatively safe place and began treating his wounds more thoroughly. I was able to stop the bleeding and bring him back to a stable state. He looked up at me and uttered a few words in his foreign language with a look of gratitude then stared off into the