Saber’s Edge: A Combat Medic in Ramadi, Iraq

Prologue

PROLOGUE I was resting upstairs on the morning of September 11, 2001. I remember my wife yelling up the stairs that we had been attacked. We watched the television together in horror as the second tower came down. The sound of the firefighters’ pass devices of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) were familiar to me, and they were deafening—the same automated distress devices used by my own fire department—hundreds of them, coming over the television as background noise, the newscasters unaware of their significance, but positively bone chilling to a firefighter like me. I did not know yet how many of my brothers had just died, but I knew it was a lot. Across America, our nation reeled from the attack. It was a terrible day—but it also brought out the absolute best in people. While the previously little known Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terrorist network had just caused the greatest loss of life in recent history, the FDNY orchestrated the single largest rescue in the history of the American Fire Service. Intuitively, I knew that our world had changed—that our nation would ask a lot of our firefighters. But to mete out vengeance? In my lifetime I fought death at every turn. I could accept the distant concept of killing in the cause of a just war, but I could not fathom taking joy in death. In mourning my brothers, I hoped the terrorists later identified as Al Qaeda would be caught and punished. I was a firefighter called to war. I served as a combat medic in the worst place on earth. This is my story, but in it are the lives and stories of others. It is with the deepest regard and respect that I remember our actions in theater and the sacrifices that our troops made there. in memoriam Sergeant First Class Christopher Chapin Staff Sergeant Ryan Ostrom Specialist William Evans First Lieutenant Mark Dooley Sergeant Michael Egan Specialist William Fernandez Specialist Scott McLaughlin Staff Sergeant George Pugliese Staff Sergeant Daniel Arnold Sergeant Erik Slebodnik Specialist Lee Wiegand Specialist Oliver Brown First Lieutenant Mark Procopio Sergeant Joshua Johnson Specialist Christopher Scott Merchant Sergeant Joseph Proctor Captain Brian Letendre Captain Gordon Lewis May they rest in peace • • • viii prologue saber’s edge ...