As a former US Army combat medic, I was trained to triage and medically treat enemy soldiers the same as I would an American Soldier. “Treat the injury, not the uniform”, was how one of my instructors at Ft. Sam Houston put it.
While I treated numerous Amercian Soldiers, I was never in the position to test my resolve and training to treat an enemy soldier. One who might have just shot me in the chest, trying to kill me. One who did not even wear the uniform of a soldier. Our training didn’t really specify if or how we had to treat non-military combatant terrorists.
But when the time came, U.S. Army PFC Stephen Tschiderer—a Combat Medic with the 256th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division—knew the right thing to do.
And in doing so, he demonstrated more clearly than any words ever could, how we are different than those we are fighting: while the enemy would drive a bomb-filled SUV into a crowd of children, our soliders save the lives of such animals.
The full-story from the Army Times:
During a routine patrol in Baghdad June 2, Army Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer, a medic, was shot in the chest by an enemy sniper, hiding in a van just 75 yards away. The incident was filmed by the insurgents.
Tschiderer, with E Troop, 101st “Saber†Cavalry Division, attached to 3rd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment, 256th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, was knocked to the ground from the impact, but he popped right back up, took cover and located the enemy’s position.
After tracking down the now-wounded sniper with a team from B Company, 4th Battalion, 1st Iraqi Army Brigade, Tschiderer secured the terrorist with a pair of handcuffs and gave medical aid to the terrorist who’d tried to kill him just minutes before.
GoJack Army has the video of PFC Tschiderer getting shot.
Make sure to read the account of the incident from the 256th Brigade Combat Team.
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MORE:
- Mudville Gazette takes the MSM to task for completely ignoring this story, which has been out since July 5th.
- Over at IMAO, their heading on this topic reads The Difference Between Us and Them. I’m not sure if he’s talking about the difference between us and the terrorists or us and the MSM.
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One lucky medic! While we are all celebrating the typical biased actions by the MSM we need to look at the deeper training and leadership issues that this video represents. Although I did not say this in my posting on the incident when I wrote about it on my blog, I was horrified by this medics lack of situational awareness. There was no “buddy team” evident. This guys butt was hanging out…all by himself. It is the sort of thing you don’t expect to see from well trained professionals. Thank god the big guy was looking out for this PFC…his training and his leadership failed him here.
The only evidence you have in support of your criticism, NOTR, is a 10 second clip from the van of the terrorists (granted, you might also have a number of years as a military leader and a number of years in a combat zone that would definitely give you more perspective and room for judgement than the average reader).
However, without having been there…to see beyond the limited scope of the narrow lens…I wouldn’t feel comfortable criticizing either PFC Tschiderer nor his leadership in this situtation. There are circumstances that you nor I can know based solely on what this clip shows. His “buddy team” could be just a few feet out of the frame of the camera.
It’s too bad our media isn’t holding him up as a hero and parading him through the streets as an example of what makes us better than our enemy. No doubt about it, if the situation had been reversed things would have been very different.
I hope this kid gets recognition from the president. This Pfc is a true testament to what this country is all about — helping others in times of need. He is to be commended for holding up to his oath to being a medic!
I agree. You can’t read one chapter of a book and then accurately summarize the book. This video clip doesn’t provide all the information of the situation.
It does, however, provide enough information for all of us in this great country of ours to realize how great and brave these Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen are and how cowardly the terrorists are. In fact, I think we and the MSM should be referring to them as Islamic cowardists rather than terrorists or insurgents.
[...] That means that an Iraqi terrorist who just shot you in the chest will get the same world-class medical care as a fallen US Soldier. It also means that sometimes you’ll also be called upon to act as a grief counsler for your fellow soldiers, or you might have to save the life of a little Iraqi girl who was wounded by a cluster bomb. [...]