Two Airmen save Soldier's life outside gym

Published June 23, 2010
By Staff Sgt. Sanjay Allen
U.S. Air Forces Central Public Affairs

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq -- Two Air Force non commissioned officers credited their pre-deployment training for recently saving the life of an Army lieutenant colonel who was having a heart attack outside the camp's gym.

Tech. Sgt. Aaron Gufford and Staff Sgt. Jeffery Kirker, both of the 392nd Expeditionary Signal Battalion at Camp Liberty, were on their way into the gym June 7 when they saw Lt. Col. Mitchell Malone, U.S. Forces-Iraq, Iraq Security Forces Leadership Development Program Directorate, leaning against a barrier just outside the gym.

"It all happened pretty fast," said Sergeant Gufford, who is deployed from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. "It was kind of a blur. I remember us walking up ... and seeing a guy, a soldier, in (physical training) gear waving us over, and he looked pretty pale. He was kind of hunching over on the barrier."

Prior to the Airmen seeing Colonel Malone, he was inside running on the treadmill when he felt a tightening in his chest. He lost his peripheral vision and knew he was losing blood flow when he decided maybe he needed some fresh air.

"There were all these people in the gym but I wanted out of the gym," the Minnesota National Guardsman said. "I wandered outside, probably to get fresh air or whatever. I don't know what I was thinking. I wasn't thinking too clearly. I knew I was in distress. I knew my body was shutting down."

Somehow, not remembering how, he made his way out of the gym and spotted the NCOs walking toward him and called out to them.

"He said, 'I need you to help me, I'm having a heart attack,'" Sergeant Gufford recalled. "'Oh my god!' I said, 'Sergeant Kirker, go get some help right now!' I grabbed (Colonel Malone), because he was kind of wobbling, and put my arm around him and I was trying to get him to sit down on the ground but he was determined to sit on the bench. I got him down on the bench and he started leaning back. I was trying to keep him up to make sure he was breathing, trying to talk to him and he just laid back. He was probably unresponsive for about 5, 10 seconds."

Sergeant Kirker rushed to get help and by the time he returned medical personnel were on scene to take over.

"At first it didn't dawn on me because you don't think about these things happening to you," said Sergeant Kirker, who is deployed from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. "All we do is go to the gym and come back."

The two wondered if they would see the colonel again when they finally made it into the gym, which is all they could do to comeback down, because their hearts were pumping so hard, Sergeant Gufford said.

One week later, on their way to the gym, they came upon a soldier standing in the same place where they saved Colonel Malone a week earlier. The colonel hadn't seen them again after he lost consciousness during his heart attack, and he decided he would just go out and look for them.

"It was like seeing a ghost," said Sergeant Kirker, who hails from Haines City, Fla. "It didn't come into absolution until we ran into him again and we found out he was OK. That's where it really hit home."

Saving someone's life on base isn't the place most people would think they would use their life saving skills, but they said they owed the moment to the combat life saver training they received prior to deploying.

"The CLS we learned just kicked in," said Sergeant Gufford, a Valdosta, Ga., native. "We were trained and we were taught how to react in certain situations of distress such as that. It was natural for me because of our training."