Local Soldiers Saving Lives in Afghanistan

Elementary school, primary grades, or for lack of a better term, grade school conjures up images and emotional connections to days filled with much learning, and more play than a kid ever dreamed possible. As you begin to let these memories drift back into your mind, and wander through the “Wonder Years” of your youth, let me draw your attention to one particular event. The fire drill, as it was called then, was a way for the vast network of children, teachers, and staff to teach methods of safe exit from a building that was in imminent danger, or the threat of such.

These drills often came at inconvenient times in a school day, and not without the pangs of knowing it was just practice. Myself included, it was always viewed as annoying when one had just began an English or Arithmetic assignment, dreading having to complete, but a must if you wanted to pass that year. Despite this view, it was always deemed necessary and appropriate to give no warning except that annoying sound that gave the alert to exit the building in orderly fashion. What kid made any exercise or drill orderly for a teacher? There was always some innocuous pushing, poking, or teasing along the way with a few grumbled phrases littered with a little sarcasm so as not to annoy the teacher. Doing so would only elicit more homework or tedious math or grammar selections for the vocal opinions.

In the end, most were just that, drills. Every child was safely extracted, accounted for, and returned to the classroom when the loudspeaker with the principles voice announced it as if they were declaring a victory. Every child who has attended public school in the USA can attest to this very drill sequence and recall many childhood memories surrounding it. With that, let me use this same analogy and your fresh and vivid memories of recalling such grade school memories, to give you a glimpse into a day in the life of an Army National Guard Medevac unit.

The crew of a Medevac unit is comprised of four crew members. There are two pilots, one medic, and one crew chief. Each one is trained extensively in the duties and responsibilities of their position, and yet, they each are required to be equally knowledgeable of their counterparts. The manner in which they are trained is called a “drill”, and for most of these crew members, is not a daily occurrence like most careers. In case you were not aware, Army National Guardsmen are very similar to military reservists, and only get training one weekend a month, 2-3 weeks out of the year, and when available, some units will allow for occasional training in-between those required dates.

All of this training is designed to give each crew member the knowledge and experience to handle the duties of the job when called on to do so. In the event of a catastrophic event, any one of the crew can take over should one become incapable of performing their duties. How often would you want to fly commercial flights with only one trained pilot, knowing that any unforeseen disaster could bring down the plane? The drills they spend their time conducting provide the comfort of knowing that most times, they will return safe walking side by side.

As you recall, the beginning of this article talked of fire drills at school. For over 12 years of your life, you were accustomed to numerous drills, used to prepare you for a day when it was “real”. Be thankful that in those years, you probably would be able to count on one hand, the number of times that it was not a drill. Now, with that vision, let me share with you the reason drills are so vitally important to the Army National Guard Medevac units.

Air Guardians, a term used to denote both the methods and delivery of a Medevac unit, is exactly what this reporter would use to describe every one of them! These units, comprised of four well-trained medical evacuation specialists, drilled so thoroughly that real missions feel like training drills with an adrenaline rush pumped into it! During a real scenario, there will be days for these crews where they are flying routine training operations in a place unfamiliar to them. It is for the sake of drilling in a new place, not just to be sure, they can perform their duties, but to keep them sharp on the very duties they drilled on so many times under foreign conditions. These drills happen when the units are “in-between” rescue missions, usually during personal downtime.

Medevac crews really are angels in the sky sent to extract patients in need of medical attention. These patients can range from a simple broken finger to one that needs an army of medical personnel to keep him alive! These are human beings, with no reference to any national origin. Air Guardians sole purpose is to extract wounded, regardless of which country the wounded would refer to as home. They are very much like guardian angels, those who watch over you and act when your safety is threatened.

In order to accomplish this, you must understand, these are men and women appear to be normal citizens in your hometown, but they spend their free time from careers to complete rescue training on weekends. They might be the local mechanic at your neighborhood shop or working for a school district. They could be a teacher, student, or even a fire fighter for your hometown. Either way, you would never know unless you had become their friend that they are the same ones who spend their weekends playing soldier to train for missions just like this. Equally so, they will be called for statewide missions to rescue either a missing hiker, a stranded boating victim of swift water conditions somewhere in California’s great wilderness regions, or even more somber, to assist federal agencies in extracting remains of victims.

At some point in their military career, when they are scheduled to deploy, you may hear about it or know someone who knows someone deploying soon. The news may tell of troops wounded or killed in a skirmish, as it has been referred to recently, but none-the-less, you do not often hear of how these men and women get back home, when they were wounded in action, in the wrong place at the wrong time, or just simply did not survive. You just understand that somehow, that by the Grace of God, most of these men and women come back to the states, and then you can breathe a little easier. Do you really know who makes sure they get back? Air Guardians are responsible for that!

In the Soldier’s creed, one of the warrior ethoses is to never leave a fallen comrade behind. Do you ever ask how they do that? Who does the job of bringing them all home? Most people are not too closely familiar with the inner workings of the military, but they extrapolate what they can from the “Hollywood” version, especially if they do not have a family history of service. The movies never really focus on it, so many people do not even contemplate how they return, and they just understand that somehow the government must be involved to ensure their return. This is where the Air Guardians make their appearances. The crew consists of two pilots, a medical professional, and a crew chief (mechanic for a helicopter). Each has a specific task and all work in tandem to go into hot zones to extract out patients and return both with the crew and the patients, all under the eyes of the enemy. They are escorted into and out of these zones with other crews who are Eagle Eyes to make sure they return!

As you think about that, remember that not only are they trained to do that, but they must see and experience parts of life that most of us are protected from knowing. Most medical professionals see things like accidents on the road, harrowing brushes with death due to heart attacks or allergic reactions, overindulgence at evening celebrations, or worse, someone who attempts to take their life. Ask a nurse to describe their night in an emergency room, and though they may share some of these, it pales in comparison to what an Army National Guard Medevac crew member will experience in the line of duty during wartime. Most Americans are never fully aware nor do we hear of the things American Soldiers will experience, but we all expect to keep our freedoms intact and that our brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, or any family members or friends who volunteer to serve to return home safely, and without the appearance of scars of war. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

The next time the local or national news is breaking a story of either soldiers returning safely, or killed in combat, remember one thing; Air Guardians do their jobs so well and with such precision that you barely know they have come and gone, exactly like a Guardian Angel. Maybe that is why they are attached to the Army National Guard. Air Guardians function very much like an angel, they are always present, always ready, and they react before you even know what is about to happen. They work quietly and they live quietly, but they should never be expected to go unnoticed by the community in which they serve. Each time a helicopter flies above, and you hear the deep thump of the rotor blades, remember, that is exactly how the wings of a Guardian Angel would sound if they flew that close to you. It is a true guardian angel in training and it just might be someone you know that they carry home in the back of those Angels in the sky!

Ms. Gina Lenzi is the Director of Home Front 2 the Front Line and can be reached at this  number (916) 290-8635.  Home Front to the Frontlines is a Community Support Group formed to provide support for the Army National Guard units, C-Co 1-168 and Det 1-812 Medevac units based out of Mather Air Field. It has expanded to add the 142nd, the 1-26th Alpha Company, and soon the 235th Guard units.

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Around Christmas time when I was just six years old, my family had gathered around the kitchen table for a “family discussion” about who knows what. At that time, and in a staunchly Catholic and deeply rooted Italian family, children were present but out of sight. It was inappropriate for them to participate in adult conversations. Many of you would probably identify with this story.

My uncle had returned from what seemed like a normal tour of duty overseas. I remember many a Sunday night waiting around the telephone in my grandparent’s kitchen for his weekly call home. As his niece, I was unaware exactly what he did, except that he was honorable since he wore that courageous uniform of blue. He was an air traffic controller in the US Air Force. This is the thoughts that always stuck with me since the time I can remember those calls home. Not until my brother and son actually swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, did I fully realize the impact of that night.

At the table, I can still vividly see him in that Khaki colored uniform, which was his daily dress for an officer. When I made my way in to give him a hug, something I always did being curious about that uniform and his return home each time, I was told to be careful since he was wearing a “very large Band-Aid”. Looking back, I now know that his tower in Vietnam, the location he had been deployed to, was bombed in an attack. He was one of a couple that survived it. The reminder I walked away with that day, and still, is that it was not right to keep such things quiet. I was PROUD of him, regardless of what the world thought at that time, and I wanted to show him how much I loved him.

In my family’s own unique way of preserving his dignity, and protecting children from the evils of this world (that being the way the public treated soldiers during the Vietnam War), we were never told the story until years later. There are many details that I am still not sure of, and probably will never know. However, this is one of the primary reasons that the voice of support and patriotism shall remain vigilant.

The family is the first place that soldiers can receive support when they deploy. This task is not easy, as I found out when my brother served as a Seabee in the US Navy for twenty-two years. Additionally, my son is now serving in the US Army Reserves. Those who stay here to support from the home front know that life continues as normal as possible all while keeping them close in thought and prayer. In the four months that passed during his basic training, I found myself torn between finding the energy to keep him close even while he was not physically present and the necessary daily routines. Just as the cliché states, “You do not know what you have until it is no longer”. Thus, this is the second reason for the support group.

Families are the biggest part of a soldier surviving but they are the smallest group to provide it. As uncomfortable as this may sound, some do not even receive many reminders, if any at all during their deployment. Small reminders of normal life from home are some of the most treasured things of all. They see this as a small piece of home they can hold onto, while in a foreign place, to have a sense of familiarity and ties to home. Letters, cards, boxes with cookies, candy, or even normal things as socks all let these men and women know they are remembered and appreciated. The “home” is where the soldier wants to know that all is well while he or she is doing their job to continue to support and defend this nation’s most cherished item, freedom.

In just such a place in the community in which I live, the idea evolved. Mather Air Base is just a short drive from the town center of Rancho Cordova. If you are sitting outside on a warm fall day, you can hear the deep beats of the rotor blades as they cut through the atmosphere just above the community. This should be a reminder of who resides at the former Air Force Base, but alas too many, similar to myself until now, were unaware. As I do each morning, I stopped at the local coffee shop for my morning jolt! The sign next to the counter was as large as life, and reminded me that one does not have to be the family member of a soldier to show support.

Home Front 2 the Front Line is dedicated to serving those who serve to support and defend our nation, homeland, and hometown. This support group grew out of an idea by two very patriotic women at the local Starbuck’s location where many of these soldiers would come in for coffee. They wanted to give back to the community in a very big way and they did! Ms. O’Hagan and Ms. Palmer started a “Java for Joes” campaign with contributions coming from local patrons. It grew to include adopting the C-Co 1-168th Medevac unit when they deployed October 18, 2008 for overseas support to troops. The two women wanted to select a soldier’s family who could use a “Happier Holiday” and thus began the group for both community support and monthly “community care” packages to the forward deployed unit, Charlie Company, 1-168!!

Community support is all about a group of patriotic and compassionate people who either work or live in the same place. The Army National Guard of California protects our state. One of the state’s 200 locations is in our own backyard. The support group formed to provide a portal for the community that surrounds the C-Co 1168 Medevac unit to show them just how much we appreciate what they do for our community, our state, and now our nation. It extends beyond what families start when supporting their soldiers during deployment. Rancho Cordova knows its “Backyard is Fortified by the Guard” by lending their hearts to those who answer the call to duty. Take the time to make all the difference in the troops’ deployment this year and provide something to remind them that back home they are still a part of this community!

To contribute to the cause, please take time to visit the website, and leave your guest book comments. Soldiers read these and know we are staying close to their deployment. There are photos of them, with more to come as they just began their tour. Additionally, you can also stop by the Starbuck’s at International and Zinfandel to leave cards and cookies in the local box. Heritage Community Credit Union at Mather and Mane Attraction Salon in Gold River both have boxes where residents can leave cards, cookies, or letters that will be shipped out in January.

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