Sheepdog Tip of the Day, After Combat tip 76
During one conference that I attended with Col. Belenky, he told the story of what happened after a soldier was killed. This soldier had stepped on an unexploded bomblet (which had become essentially a landmine) in one of the little outlying camps. Col. Belenky grabbed a helicopter and flew out to the site, where he learned that the medic, who had treated the fatally injured man, was still in deep shock 24 hours later. When the helicopter had evacuated the body, the medic had just sat there, muttering how the man's death was his fault. He said it so often and so intensely that everyone else accepted it as the truth. Then Dr. Belenky gathered all the participants for a debriefing. Once they began talking, it turned out the platoon sergeant and platoon leader felt guilt over errors they had made calling in the medivac helicopter. The group learned that the kid who died had been carrying an M-203 grenade on his chest, ammunition he was supposed to have turned in but the squad leader and team leader had let him keep it. When he stepped on the ICM bomblet, it exploded and set off the grenade on his chest. This was a source of guilt for the team leader and squad leader, since they had failed to follow procedure. Then the medic told his story. He had raced across what could have been a minefield, dropped down beside the victim and began CPR, though there was no heartbeat or respiration. Bloody air gurgled out the man's cheek, so the medic slapped his hand over the wound and continued to apply mouth to mouth. Bloody air gurgled out the guy's chest, so the medic ripped open his shirt and tried to cover the gaping wound with his arm while continuing with CPR. Then bloody air gurgled out of the guy's eye sockets. For over 20 minutes, the medic applied CPR to a bloody corpse, his own body becoming drenched in the man's blood. Finally, the medivac bird came, the man was placed into a body bag, and the helicopter whisked him away into the sky. On the ground, the medic cried, "It's my fault. It's all my fault. I should have done more." His friends sat stunned with tears in their eyes. They hugged him and said, "We never understood what had happened. We never understood. It's not your fault. You did all you could do." His peers were the only ones who could convince him that it was not his fault. Dr. Belenky said that when the others said those words and embraced him that the medic blossomed like a rose. They gave him his life back. The doctor did a follow-up on him later and he was just fine.
Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On Combat
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