BlackFive

"...the last person I made out with was a male lieutenant!" - Army Sergeant Christopher Turner, 1/325th Airborne Infantry Regiment

That's probably not the way that Christopher Turner wants to be remembered.  He's keeping his Airborne troopers alive as a medic with the Red Falcons - the 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment - operating in eastern Afghanistan.  Christopher Turner is native of Scotland.

Scottish Native a Pillar of Dependability in Unit

By Pfc. Mike Pryor, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service

NAWA,

Afghanistan,

Aug. 26, 2005

–

It wasn't even noon yet and already Army Sgt. Christopher Turner had been hit in the face by concrete fragments, forced to deputize a chaplain to man his under-strength aid station, and resuscitated an officer who had stopped breathing.

It was the kind of situation where Turner is at his best.

"I'm just managing the chaos," he said cheerfully as he prepped another bag of intravenous for use.

Turner, 29, originally from Glenrothes, Scotland, is a medic attached to the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment. He has been a pillar of dependability for the battalion since it began combat operations in eastern Afghanistan in mid-July.
<...>

Turner prefers to view himself as a magnet for trouble.

"I hate my name. I hear it all the time and it's never for anything good. It's never, 'Hey Sgt. Turner you just won $1,000!' It's always, 'Hey Sgt. Turner, I'm hurt!' or, 'Hey Sgt. Turner, I need a medic!" he said.

Turner's abilities were put to good use during Operation Neptune, a massive cordon-and-search operation in the deserts of eastern Afghanistan the battalion conducted Aug. 8 - 12.
<...>

Turner was nearby when an officer who had been receiving fluids went into a seizure the night of Aug. 9. Turner leaped into action.

"His eyes rolled back in his head, and his whole body went rigid," Turner said.

The officer had stopped breathing, and his brain was no longer receiving oxygen. Knowing the situation was critical, Turner knelt down and began administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

"I gave two rescue breaths, and he shot up and said, 'I'm good! I'm good!" Turner said.

The officer was evacuated by air later that night and is expected to make a full recovery. Turner, typically, downplays the incident. "Yeah, the last person I made out with was a male lieutenant," he said.

After providing medical care throughout the rest of the operation, Turner was riding back to his forward operating base in a convoy when it was ambushed by a group of militants. The well-positioned attackers hit the convoy with improvised explosive devices, rocket-propelled grenades, and small-arms fire, but miraculously no one was hurt. Then, not so miraculously, the truck Turner was in rolled into a ditch. Despite seeming to bounce from one catastrophe to another, Turner remains upbeat. By his personal yardstick, he said, this deployment has been an unqualified success.

"I've yet to lose a soldier in my care, and that's the way I like it," he said.

I'm sure that's the way all of Turner's soldiers like it.  Airborne!

[Hoists the Caol Ila - "Christopher Turner!"]    

How does an orphan from the streets of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:

U.S. Air Force photo

Become a US Air Force Air Traffic Controller?:

U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Owolabi Olufemi

The amazing story is in the Extended Section:

Wynton C. Hall & Peter Schweizer have written a must read article for the National Review Online:

Campus Rads vs. Our Vets
The antiwar unwelcome on campus.

By Wynton C. Hall & Peter Schweizer

As college students hit campuses across the nation this week, a new generation of young veterans will step off the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan and onto the ideological battlefield of our university campuses. For those on the frontline in the war on terror, the antiwar hostility of liberal professors and campus activists will assuredly prove unsettling.

Just ask Marine sergeant Marco Martinez, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a full-time psychology major at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif...

Hall & Schweizer follow the collegiate experiences of two students who happen to be heroes.  Go, read it...

Soldiers' Angels Germany (blog) has some photos that tell a heart-warming story with just a few words.

Here's a link to a video of a US Army Buffalo vehicle (Engineers) inspecting a suspicious bag on a roadside.

The video was taken on Friday, August 26th, 2005 by the 612th Engineer Battalion while conducting a routine improvised explosive device route clearing mission.  They came across an improvised explosive device which explodes.

It explodes at around the 2:16 mark on the video.

The video is 3.56MB and you can either download it or stream it.

Coincidentally, today, W. Thomas Smith Jr. of the Washington Times has a story about the Buffalo.

Via Instapundit, WDSU is live-blogging the hurricane.  They have video coverage too of the damage (minor but getting worse) to the Superdome.

Thinking of Bobby, Harold, Jennifer, Conner, Jean and Petey...my pals in Louisana.

9:30 AM CST:  Reports of some flooding (9th Ward),  fires, and building damage...and this is less than expected because the hurricane turned away from New Orleans at the last minute.  There are a few reports that the French Quarter has some flooding, too.

Oil commodities' prices are rising.  Part due to damage that will be done to the largest oil economy in the USA...

And, after the hundreds of millions we poured into the tsunami relief, I wonder where the world will be on this (not really wondering, just being optimistic).

Fuzzilicious Thinking has a post today about how providing laptops with voice-activated software helps the wounded troops stay connected and significantly helps with their care.

You can go here to donate to Project Valour-IT.

Conservative Propaganda was at the pro-military rally that countered Code Pinko's anti-wounded hero protest.

It's covers the whole event with lots of great pictures.

Via Instapundit, The Clarksville (Tennessee) Leaf Chronicle has an editorial about Fred Phelps protesting military funerals.  This is something that we've discussed here before (see link for how police have countered Phelps in Massachusetts).

What the Tennessee Editorial misses is that the intent of the hateful, ignorant Fred Phelps and his "church" is to get funds from filing law suits against anyone who assaults him or his followers. His wife is his attorney.

Here's an older message from the Navy about Phelps (who was protesting at Marine funerals at the time):

FORCE PROTECTION (FP) ADVISORY MESSAGE 05-180

(THREAT TO MILITARY FUNERALS)// REF/A/MSG/CMC/051956Z JUL 05//REF A IS HQ USNORTHCOM FORCE PROTECTION (FP) ADVISORY MESSAGE 05-180 (THREAT TO MILITARY FUNERALS)// RMKS/

1. REQUEST WIDEST DISSEMINATION POSSIBLE TO ALL COMMANDS, UNITS AND PERSONNEL.  ENSURE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS FOR ALL DOD PERSONNEL PARTICIPATING IN OR ATTENDING FUNERAL SERVICES FOR MILITARY MEMBERS.

2. USNORTHCOM IS TRANSMITTING THIS FP ADVISORY BASED ON RECENT
REPORTS OF PROTEST GROUP ACTIVITIES TO PICKET MILITARY FUNERALS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY.

2.A. A GROUP FROM WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH (WBC) LOCATED IN
TOPEKA, KANSAS HAS PROTESTED OR IS PLANNING TO PICKET AND PROTEST AT PUBLIC FUNERALS OF PERSONNEL KILLED IN THE WAR ON TERRORISM.  THIS GROUP HAS REPORTEDLY ANNOUNCED VIA THEIR WEBSITE THAT THEY INTEND TO PROTEST FUNERALS IN ALABAMA, CALIFORNIA, DELAWARE, IOWA, IDAHO, ILLINOIS, KANSAS, MICHIGAN,
MINNESOTA, NEW YORK, PENNSYLVANIA, WISCONSIN, AND WEST VIRGINIA.

2.B. THERE IS NO INFORMATION TO INDICATE THAT THIS GROUP PLANS ANY FORM OF VIOLENT ACTIVITY AND THEY ARE NOT KNOWN TO INITIATE PHYSICAL CONTACT. HOWEVER, THIS GROUP DOES EMPLOY PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE TECHNIQUES INTENDED TO PROVOKE A HOSTILE RESPONSE OR OFFENSIVE REACTION FROM OTHERS. THEY WILL EMPLOY WRITTEN AND VERBAL INFLAMMATORY LANGUAGE AGAINST THE DECEASED PERSON, THEIR FAMILY, AND MILITARY PERSONNEL TO ELICIT DESIRED RESPONSES.  THIS GROUP WILL THEN FILE A CIVIL ACTION IN AN EFFORT TO REACH A SETTLEMENT IN ORDER TO FUND FUTURE ACTIVITIES.

3. SERVICES AND MILITARY UNITS PERFORMING AND SUPPORTING PUBLIC ACCESSIBLE FUNERAL DETAILS SHOULD:

3.A. ENSURE LOCAL AREA THREAT ASSESSMENTS CONSIDER THIS AS A POTENTIAL THREAT.

3.B. COORDINATE WITH LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT/CIVILIAN AUTHORITIES AT ANY TIME WBC MEMBERS OR SIMILAR ORGANIZATIONS ARE BELIEVED TO BE PROTESTING.

4. ALL DOD PERSONNEL/FAMILY MEMBERS PARTICIPATING IN OR
ATTENDING MILITARY FUNERALS SHOULD BE MADE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING:

4.A. SITUATIONAL AWARENESS OF REPORTED ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE WBC AND THEIR METHODS.

4.B. DO NOT PERSONALLY ENGAGE PROTESTORS IN ANY WAY; VERBALLY OR PHYSICALLY.

4.C. ALLOW CIVILIAN AUTHORITIES TO ADDRESS ANY INFLAMMATORY SITUATIONS OR EFFORTS TO IMPEDE THE FUNERAL PROCESSIONAL.

Update:  I added a link (above, too) to the last post discussing Phelps.  It's one that shows how local police bagpipers added a musical element to Phelps' protest.

The National Review's Eric Pfieffer is live blogging from Crawford, Texas, with the people countering Cindy Sheehan.