Two month training is worth the effort Published Oct. 17, 2006 By Capt. Ted Janicki 716th Communication Flight Afghanistan -- There was nothing easy about the two months of training we went through in preparation for our Afghanistan deployment. Blood, sweat, and tears were the norm. The high school attitude kept creeping back into my head, "Why am I learning this stuff? I'll never use it in my lifetime." Now that we are in Afghanistan, I wouldn't have traded one second of that training, which is put to use on a daily basis. On one specific day, it made a real difference. That specific day was a Friday -- Sept. 1, 2006, to be exact. We don't get any days off over here, but we do get every Friday as a low tempo, light work day because in Afghanistan, Fridays are their holy days. It never seems to be low tempo, but the thought is what counts. On the holy day, we don't have to mentor the Afghan National Army (ANA). However, we usually have to play catch up on the U.S. work side of the house. On that day, I woke up naturally at my normal time of 5:30 am. I began by doing my normal daily hygiene routine, followed by a walk to the chow hall to get something in my stomach. On my way, I ran into the convoy commander for the 2 pm trip to Camp Phoenix. I was scheduled to be on that trip to meet with the joint staffers on a special project. The convoy commander told me that trip was cancelled and replaced with a 7 am convoy. That gave me about 10 minutes to get geared up and in the vehicle. I hurried to get everything together to make the trip. We arrived at Phoenix around 7:30 am. A long day of work ensued, and I finally left at 2 pm to catch the convoy back to my camp. On the convoy were a dentist, an optometrist, an Army master sergeant, a Marine master sergeant, four Army security forces troops and myself. We had one up-armored Humvee and a Toyota 4 Runner. Immediately after we turned onto a road near where we were leaving, I noticed a large crowd of people about 100 yards ahead of us. When some of the people began running toward us, I thought we were going to have trouble. As we made our way through the crowd, we saw a child lying in the middle of the road. The thought ran through my mind --"Is this real, or is it a ploy to get us to stop?" The Army master sergeant made the split decision to pull over and set up security. We were fortunate to have that dentist with us; having medical expertise allowed us to make the decision to help. The dentist did first aid while the rest of us pulled security. The child in the middle of the road was an eight-year-old boy, the victim of a hit and run vehicle accident. The severely injured boy was bleeding from so many places. The two master sergeants directed traffic. The security forces troops set up 360° security. I posted security on the dentist and assisted in first aid treatment when necessary. There must have been 150 bystanders that we had to keep in control during the whole ordeal, not to mention the traffic driving by that wanted to stop and look at the situation. The optometrist called an ambulance, and we held ground for about 45 minutes before it arrived. The crowd became more restless as time passed. When the ambulance finally arrived, I helped casualty evacuate the kid onto the vehicle. The father tried to get in the back of the ambulance with his son, but there was no room. I put him in the ambulance front seat. I patted him down, just in case, because he was going to be whisked away onto a military base with his child for treatment. We rushed the boy to a pediatric surgery unit at a camp about 10 minutes down the road. I've been told that the child had a brain injury and that surgery was performed to relieve the swelling. I do know this -- we did everything possible to keep him alive while he was in our care. Now, I ask did fate play a role in my running into the convoy commander that morning? The timing happened just right on a day I was supposed to be sleeping in, but instead I woke up earlier than normal for a Friday. The experience that day made this whole trip worthwhile. If nothing else happens the rest of the time I am here, I can still leave with the feeling that I made a difference. As for the training, if I hadn't gone through crowd control, combat lifesaver and casualty evacuation instruction, then the whole situation would have ended up completely different.